S7 


THE 


GREAT  QUESTIONS  OF  THE  TIMES 


9 


BRIEF  REPORT  OF  PROCEEDINGS 


AT    THE    GREAT 


INAUGURAL  MASS  MEETING 


OF     THE 


LOYAL  NATIONAL  LEAGUE, 


IX 


UNION  SQUARE,  NEW  YORK, 


ON 


THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF  SUMTER, 


APRIL  11th,  18G3. 


A  full  Report  of  the  Proceedings,  including  all  the  speeches,  and  letter?  from  dis- 
tinguished citizens  in  all  quarters  of  the  Union,  is 
published  in  another  hook.) 


N  E  W   Y  0  R  K  : 
PRINTED  FOR  THE  LOYAL  NATIONAL  LEAGUE. 

18  8  8. 


•A 


■m  *'*.-% 


THE  GREAT  QUESTIONS  OF  THE  TIMES! 


♦  »» 


REPORT  OF  PROCEEDINGS 


AT    THB 


i 


LOYAL  NATIONAL  LEAGUE, 

ON   UNION   SQUARE,   NEW   YORK, 


ON 


THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF1  SUMTER. 

PEINTED  FOE  THE  LOYAL  NATIONAL  LEAGUE. 


The  Sumter  Rally  on  the  llt.h  Aprilat  Union  Square, 
was  a  triumphant  gathering  of  the  loyal  people  of 
the  Empire  City.  Tbe  weather  was  fine;  the  con- 
course immense;  the  speeches  patriotic  and  eloquent. 
Six  Btands  were  erected  on  the  Square  for  the  accom- 
modation of  the  orators  and  musicians,  and  upon 
each  of  these  were  flags  of  stars,  with  appropriate 
mottoes  and  devices.  The  magnificent  statue  of 
Washington  was  decorated  with  a  roBette  of  red, 
white,  and  blue,  with  streamers,  and  trimmed  with 
evergreens.  The  vast  assemblage  of  people  pouring 
in  from  every  street  at  an  early  hour  surged  about 
the  stands,  forming  a  sea  of  upturned  faces  beaming 
with  patriotic  devotion  to  their  country.  Many  of 
the  public  buildings  and  large  edifices  on  Broadway 
and  other  parts  of  the  city  had  the  National  flag 
flying  during  the  day.  Capt.  Mowbray  and  Henry 
Brewster  each  sent  a  brass  piece,  from  which  a  sa- 
lute of  one  hundred  and  fifty  guns  was  fired.  The 
police  arrangements,  under  Inspector  Carpenter, 
were  all  that  could  be  desired,  and  the  utmost  order 
was  preserved  throughout  the  day.  It  was  a  mag- 
nificent mass  meeting  of  the  loyal  citizens  of  New- 
York,  who,  forgetting  their  party  associations  and 
political  predilections,  made  haste  to  show  their  al- 
legiance to  the  flag  which  had  been  struck  from  its 
staff  by  Rebel  cannon  at  Fort  Sutnter  two  years  8go. 
We  do  not  disparage  the  other  distinguished  gentle- 
men when  we  say  that  Gen.  Fremont  and  Gen.  Sigel 
were  the  lions  of  the  day.  These  men  had  been 
baptized  with  fire  on  the  field  of  battle,  and  bad 
shown  their  patriotism  by  personal  exposure  in  front 
•f  the  enemy.  When  tbe  speaking  commenced, 
Union  Squaie  presented  an  imposing  and  animated 
scene.  Here  the  white  locks  of  Daniel  S.  Dickinson 
were  streaming  in  the  win  J,  while  his  pungent  sen- 
tences stirred  the  souls  of  his  auditors  with  intense 
emotions;  there  Gov.  Morton  of  Indiana  reasoned  of 
the  righteousness  of  our  cause  and  the  judgment  that 
will  come  upon  traitors,  while  Gens.  Fremont  and 
Sigel,  at  different  stands,  but  almost  within  hearing 
of  each  other,  moved  their  hearers  with  a  spirit  of 


enthusiasm  which  was  expressed  in  cheer  apoa 
cheer  and  sentiments  of  high  commendation.  Hand- 
kerchiefs  and  flags  were  waved  by  the  fair  hands  of 
ladies  who  filled  the  doorways,  windows,  and  balco- 
nies that  border  the  Square,  and  the  booming  cannon 
seemed  to  give  emphasis  to  the  sentiments  so  spirit- 
edly applauded.  The  short  pauses  between  the 
speeches  were  filled  with  music  that  chimed  harmo- 
niously with  the  masterly  eloquence  of  the  speakers. 
Although  the  news  from  Charleston  was  not  satis- 
factory, the  hope  and  the  faith  of  the  people  were 
unshaken,  and  their  determination  to  wipe  out  the 
Rebellion,  at  whatever  cost  of  blood  and  treasure, 
was  firm  and  strong  as  on  the  day  of  the  Sumter 

outrage. 

♦ 

STAMJ    No.  1. 

Speeches   of   the   Son.  Montgomery    Blnir. 
the  Hon.  "Win.  D.  Kelley,  and   Others. 

Stand  No.  1  was  placed  immediately  in  front  of 
the  statue  of  Washington.  Long  before  the  com- 
mencement a  great  mass  of  people  collected  beneath 
the  inspiration  of  the  Father  of  their  Country,  and 
before  4  p.  m.  the  auditors  at  this  stand  were  num- 
bered by  thousands.  A  salute  was  fired  by  the 
workingmen  in  the  employ  of  Mr.  Henry  Brewster 
from  two  6-pounders.  This  stand  was  provided  with 
a  paraboloid  sound-reflector,  which  throws  the  voice 
of  a  speaker  much  farther  than  it  will  otherwise  go, 
and  renders  speaking  in  the  open  air  comparatively 
easy.  This  is  a  contrivance  of  Col.  Grant  of  cal- 
cium-light celebrity. 

After  a  grand  march  from  "Le  Prophete,"  by 
Grafulla'sBand,  Mr.  George  Griswold  called  the 
meeting  to  order,  and  nominated  Mayor  Opdyke  to 
preside.  His  nomination  was  received  with  enthu- 
siasm. 

On  taking  the  chair,  the  Mayor  made  a  few 
remarks  on  the  occasion  and  its  memories,  which 
were  received  with  great  applause.  He  concluded 
by  introducing  the  hero  of  the  Harriet  Lane,  Robert 
Cummiugs,  tbe  brave  sailor  boy  who  fired  the  last 
shots  after  she  had  been  boarded  by  tbe  Rebels.  The 
sturdy  little  tar  mounted  upon  a  chair,  in  obedience 
to  the  calls  of  the  multitude,  and  was  loudly  cheered. 

Mr.  Geouqe  Griswold  then  read  the  address  of 


2 


ed,  auj 


the  League,   prepared  by   Dr.  Lieber.    It   was  re- 
ceived with  frequent  cheers. 

Mr.  S.  B.  Chittenden  proposed  the  following 

RESOLUTIONS. 

I.  Resolved,  That,  assembled  on  the  anniversary  of  the 
It  on  Sumter,  and  reals  win*  the  two  years  t  n  at  have 

since  i  i  <>ur  government  b  is 

made  from  the  position  of  unexampled  weakness  to  which 
it  bad  been  re  Inced  by  imbecility  mil  treachery,  \v<- 
nizetbe  wondrotu  vit'a'iiy  purl  4i r. ■;>  .'th  of  our  republican 

I   -  iris,  ',  is,  ,1   iij.o  i  the  will  of  an  in  i  1  I'r  '6 

At  ttieir  voice  a  million  of  men  have  s[irun.'  t) 
An  off.    tl  has  been  suddenly  created, 

the  monstrous  expens  s  ol  a  mighty  war  have  l>  ten  pri 
ly  and  cheerf  illy  met  without  borrowing  a  dollar  froi 
capitalists  of  Kurope,  or  askin.  e  from  any 

upon  earth. 

That  the  feeling  of  loyal  America,  in  view  of  all  the  diffi- 
calties  of  the  ctso,  has  deepened  into  the  tlrm  ami  clear  con- 
viction  that  the  ret)ellion  can -he  brained,  ought  to  be  crush- 
ed, and  shall  be  crushed;  and  that  the  last  Congress,  in 
placing  at  the  dsposd  of  the  Executive,  without  stint,  tin 
>n  -n,  money,  and  resources  of  the  nation,  was  the  true  ex- 
ponent of  the  devotion  and  loyalty  of  th»  American  pe  pie, 
and  of  their  unalterable  determination  to  preserve  unim- 
paired the  national  unity,  both  in  principle  and  territory, 
against  armed  traitors  In  i  is  South,  their  alders  an  1  abettors 
io  the  North,  an  1  tuelr  piratical  allies  in  Great  Britain. 

II.  Resolved,  Tbat,  apart  from  the  treachery  that  has 
lurked,  and  which  we  fear  still  lurks,  in  the  civil  and  mili- 
tary departments  of  the  government,  we  believe  that  the 
errors  and  de'ays  that  have  hitherto  retarded  the  prosecu- 
tion of  tlie  war.  and  the  success  of  our  arm-1,  have  arisen 
from  theerron  joas  belief  chat  the  rebels  have  po^s'ssed  cer- 
tain constitutional  rignts  which  the  national  government 
ivas  bound  to  resp  -cr. 

That  th  j  recent  decision  of  the  Supreme  C  mrt  of  the  na- 
tion, resDlving,  by  the  solemn  adjudicuion  of  thai  high  tri- 
buna',  to  whose  judgment  the  Anuricau  people  are  accus- 
tomed to  bow,  a'l  constitutional  doubts  as  to  the  character 
oT  the  war  in  which  the  nation  is  engaged,  leaves  n>  place 
hereaftjr  for  any  sich  mistake  on  the  part  of  any  officer, 
civil,  military,  or  naval,  since  the  .judicial  declaration  that 
the  territory" occupied  by  tne  rebels  is  "enemy's  territory  ; 
and  all  persons  residing  wrtbin  this  territory,  whose  property 
may  be  used  to  increase  the  revenues  of  the  hostile  power, 
are  in  the  condition  to  be  treated  as  enemies,  though  not 
foreigners,"'  has  defined  beyon  1  all  question  the  rights  and 
datf  of  the  government  and  the  po  iple. 

That,  in  acordance  with  the  principles  of  that  decision, 
now  to  be  recogniz  -d  as  the  law  of  the  land,  the  war  snould 
henceforth  b.'  waged  with  a  single  aim  to  the  conquest  of 
the  rebe'lion,  with  the  least  delay  and  the  smalles  i  burthen 
to  the  nation  at  huge,  by  depriving  the  enemy  of  his  strength 
and  his  res  mrces  in  whatsoever  they  may  consist,  by  appro- 
priating his  property  wherever  It  may  be  convenient,  and 
by  withdrawing  from  hie  support, enrolling  in  our  ranks,  and 
treating  as  soldiers  of  the  republic,  all  loyal  men  to  be  fou  1 
ih  the  South,  without  regard  to  race,  creed,  or  complexion. 

11 L  Revolved,  Tnat  when,  on  the  day  on  whose  solemn 
anniversary  we  are  gathered  together,  ttie  rebels  of  the 
South  blasted  that  they  had  inaugurated  war  against  the 
republic,  that  they  had  humbled  the  star.->  and  stripes,  and 
that  their  confederate  counterfeit  of  our  flag  would  soon 
float  even  over  Faneuil  Hall,  the  American  people  rallied  in 
defence  of  that  national  unity  which  had  been  ttieir  glory  at 
home  and  their  safeguard  abroad ;  and  while  they  have 
maintained  the  aucimt  honor  of  toeir  flag  on  many  a  well- 
Contested  fi  -Id,  and  will  maintain  It,  until  it  again  floats  over 
Sumter,  and  wherever  it  has  floated  in  the  past  :  they",  never- 
theless, have  recognized,  and  do  now  recognize,  the  fact  tbat 
the  rebellion  was  not  orgmized  by  the  people  of  the  South, 
t.ut  by  their  bad  and  ambitious  leaden,  who,  armed  witli  the 
muniments  of  warfilched  from  the  national  government,  pre- 
■■  p  tated  the  revolution  upon  the  South  -rn  States. 

That  we  also  reognize  the  fact  that  the  object  of  those 
leaders  is  to  establish  a  mi  itary  or  monarchical  government. 
sustained  by  an  organized  and  cemented  aristocracy,  in 
which  the  principles  of  democracy  should  be  utterly  ignored, 
its  fundamental  doctrine  of  "  the  greatest  l'<  lodof  the  greatest 
number  "  should  be  di-c  irded  as  a  pestilent  and  perni 
dogma,  and  the  rights  and  happiness  of  the  majority  of  the 
citizens  be  sacrificed  to  the  interests  of  a  few  slaveholders. 

That  we  further  recognise  the  fact  that,  with  this  intent, 
Slavery  was  made  the  chief  corner-stone  of  the  Southern 
confederacy,  and,  in  the  remorseless  conscription  for  their 
army,  persons  holding  twenty  slaves  are  exempt,  while  the 
non-slaveholders  are  made  to  bear  the  burthen  of  a  Mar  in- 
tended to  impoverish  and  degrade  them.  And  we  gladly 
remember  that  in  the  overthrow  of  that  bastard  confederacy, 
and  the  uprooting  of  its  corner-stone,  will  be  concerned,  not 
simply  the  welfare  of  the  nation  at  large,  but  the  future 
jpeace,  prosperity,  and  happiness  of  the  South;  that  in  its 
future  results  the  war  for  the  Union  will  be  one,  not  of  sub- 
jugation, but  of  deliverance;  and  that,  as  regards  all  classes 
jn  the  rebel  State',  excepting  only  the  leaders  of  the  rebellion, 
onr  triumph  will  be  their  gain. 


1  V  I.  That  in  view  of  ths  recent  conduct  of  the 

British   government,   i"   p  'rmittin.'  a  piratical  vessel  to  be 
built,  equipped,  and  man  le  1   in    British  port-",  f„r  the  u- 
i  h  s  m  hero  o  infederates,  and  to  g  i  forth  under  the  British 
lla_',   in   disregard  of  the  remonstrances  of  the  American 
mini-  ample   proof  of  the  character  of 

the  vessel,  to  pre.-  upon  Am  riein  commerce,  and  plund 
and  burn  defenceless  merchant  ships,  receiving  the  while 
th.'  hospitalities  of  British  colonial  ports,  it  is  proper  for  us 
I  i  fee  ill  to  the  British  government  and  the  Britsh  p 
the  contrast  between  sue  i  a  violation  of  international  neu- 
trality,  and  the  honorable  fidelity  and  prompt  n  «S  which  the 
American  government,  from  it-  foundaiion,  has  uniformly 
observed  toward  the  government  of  Great  Britain. 

Tlii^|^a*.>! e  se    by  Washington  in  observing,  in  regard 
to      ■    Hiie  strictest  neutrality  In  her  war  with  1 
the  iiB^BPriry  instruction  iriven  by  Hamilton,  when  Secre- 
tary .f  the  Treasury,  to  the  collectors  of  our  ports  to  exer- 
cise "the  greatest  vigilance,  care, activity,  and  impartiality, 
in  searching  for  and  discovering  any  attempt  to  tit  out  \ 
sets  or  expedition!  in  aid  Of  either  party  ;"  the  action  of  our 
Government,  on  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Hammond,  the  Brit- 
ish Minister,  in  seizing  a  vessel  that  was  being  fitted  out  as 
a  French  privateer-;  the  restoration  to  the  British  Govern- 
ment of  the  British  ship  "  Grange  "  taken  by  the  French  in 
Amoican  waters;  the  equipment  by  President  Jefferson,  in 
1805,  of  a  force  to  cruise  within  oar  own  seas  and  arrest  v.- 
sels  embarking  in  a  war  in  which  the  country  had  no  part, 
and  "bring  in  the  offenders  for  trial  as  pirates;"  and  the 
prompt  fidelity  with  which  succeeding  Presid  n's  have  per- 
firm'd  their  duty  in  this  regard,  especially  toward  Great 
Britain,  down  to  its  Canadian  rebel  ion  in  1883.  and  its  war 
with  Russia  in  1-54,  the  facts  of  which  are  fresh  in  their 
recollection,— complete  a  record  that  entitles  the  American 
Government  to  the  fairest  exercise,  on  the  part  of  England. 
of  the  neutrality  she  professes  in  the  pending  war  with  the 
Southern  Confederates.     Tuat  apart  from  the  fact  that  the 
aid  thus  extended  in  England  to  the  Confederate  cause, 
without  interference  by  the  government,  in  defiance  of  the 
sentiments  of  the  civilized  world,  to  a   pretended  govern- 
ment, which  boasts  as  its  corn-r-stone  human  slavery,  it  is 
the  sentiment  of  this  meeting  that  the   Government  of  the 
Unite!  States  should  make  the  most  urgent  appeal  to  the 
honor  of  the   British   Government,    t)  the  justice  of  the 
British  couns,  and  the  in  iral  sense  of  the  British  people,  to 
provide  a  remedy  for  these  outrages,  and  avert  the  possibil- 
ity of  a  conflict  between  two  nations  who  should  be  united 
by  all  the  ties  that   spring  from  a  common   ancestry  and  a 
common  civilization. 

V.  Resolved,  That  we  cannot  separate  on  an  occasion 
like  the  present,  when  we  again  catch  the  echoes  of  cannon 
thundering  against  Burnt  -r.  « i  bout  recalling,  with  swelling  , 
pride  and  affectionate  regard,  our  brave  army  and  navy.  I 
wherever  gathered  for  the  detence  of  the  country,  and  espe- 
cially those  that  attract  the  gaze  of  the  world  on  the  Cooper, 
the  Happahannock,  and  the  Mississippi. 

That,  to  protect  the  rights  of  our  gdlant  defenders  is  the 
grateful  duty  of  all  true  Americans;  and  that  we  heartily 
approve  tbejudicieus  Act  of  our  Legislature  to  secure  them 
their  privileg  i  of  a  vote,  while  we  leave  to  the  scorn  they 
deserve,  those  men  recreant  to  the  first  principles  of  de- 
mocracy, who.  ready  to  abet  the  enemies  of  their  country, 
even  by  invoking  intervention  from  a  British  minister,  with 
abase  consistency,  would  wrest  from  our  citizen-sddiers 
the  right  to  pass  upon  snob  disloyal  conduct. 

VI."  Reaofved,  Tha',  with  the  view  of  advising  the  Na- 
tional Government!.)  the  earnest  devotion  of  the  loyal  mi 
here  assembled,  and  of  their  dee  .led  views  in  regard  to  the 
manner  in  which  this  war  should  be  prosecuted,  a  copy  of 
these  resolutions  be  respectfully  addressed  to  the  President 
and  each  member  of  his  Cabinet,  to  whom,  by  acclamation, 
we  wish  God-speed  in  their  glorious  work  of  maintaining  the 
unity,  the  freedom,  and  tne  supremacy  of  our  common 
conn  try. 

The  reading  of  the  resolutions  was  interrupted  by 
applause,  and  they  were  adopted  by  acclamation. 

Mr.  Ckiswold  read,  amid  great  applause,  ex- 
acts from  the  letters  of  Gen.  Scott,  Gen.  Halleck, 
Uteri.  Hooker,  Archbishop  Hughes  and  Gov.  Tod. 
The  following  is  the  letter  from  Gen.  Hooker: 

Headquarters  Armt  of  the  Potomac,  ) 
April  9,  1863.     } 
To  Jas.  A.  Roosevelt,  Secretary  Loyal  Lea  nut : 

Sir:  Acknowledging  the  receipt  of  an  invitation  to  be  pres- 
ent  at  a   mass   meeting  of  the  loyal   citizen!   of  the  United 
States,  to   be   held  at  New  York  on  the  11th   Instant,  I  have  A 
occasion  to  regret  that  my  duties  will  cot  permit  me  to  be    | 
present  at  that  important  assemblage. 

Permit  me,  however,  to  express  my  hearty  sympathy  with 
the  objects  and  purposes  of  the  proposed  demonstration,  and 
to  desire  that  my  Dame  may  be  placed  with  thoBe  who  so  love 
their  country,  its  Union  and  its  Constitution,  aa  to  be  glad  to 
reDew  pledget  of  loyalty  and  fealty  aa  often  aa  circumstances 
will  demand. 

The  frequent  assembling  together  of  onr  countrymen  for 


•  _-..-.»  m         -    »     -    m.w    v    m    »    9    9    V     J     •    m    «.     -\    «    A~M    1     AAA    ,T»T.TJ 


.%  ttf. 


9  *3.  ? 


■;  ,v>, 


t* 


purposes  of  counsel  and  interchange  of  thought  upon  the 
great  national  question  of  the  day  Is  one  of  the  useful  and 
commendable  duties  of  the  times,  which  has  my  best  wishes, 
as  it  has  those  of  all  honest  and  loyal  men. 

The  army  which  I  have  the  honor  to  command  is,  I  am 
proud  to  say,  in  such  good  heart  and  in  so  exoellent  a  con- 
dition that  I  am  warranted  in  pledging  it  to  a  gallant  blow  for 
the  defence  of  our  national  unity  and  integrity,  whenever  the 
enemy  shall  be  met  by  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 

That  God  may  spead  the  cause  of  the  Union  and  popular 
liberty  everywhere,  is  the  hopeful  aspiration  of 
Your  obedieDt  servant, 

JOSEPHJHOOKER, 
Major -General  Commanding. 

The  Mayor  then  said: 

I  have  now  the  honor  of  introducing  to  yo^i  gen- 
tleman who  is  part  and  parcel  of  the  Government — 
a  distinguished  member  of  the  Administration — a 
gentleman  of  Southern  birth  and  Southern  associa- 
tions, but  whose  heart  beats  as  loyal  as  yours  or 
mine.  I  have  the  pleasure  of  presenting  to  you  the 
Hon.  Montgomery  Blair.  (Great  applause,  and 
"  three  cheers  tor  Blair.  "J 

SPEECH  OF  MONTGOMERY   BLAIR. 

Mr.  Blair  said:  Fellow-citizens  of  New  York, 
I  am  gratified  to  meet  so  vast  an  assemblage,  and 
to  unite  with  you  in  doing  honor  to  the  glorious 
cause  which  we  have  met  here  to  pledge  ourselves 
to  support.  This,  my  friends,  is  a  most  appropriate 
occasion  upon  which  to  renew  our  pledges  to  that 
flag  which  has  come  down  to  us  with  so  many  hal- 
lowed memories  associated  with  the  founders  of  this 
Government.!^  The  day  upon  which  an  attempt  was 
made  to  subvert  this  Government  is  a  day  to  be  re- 
membered; it  is  a  day  to  be  remembered,  and  I  hope 
with  the  treatment  which  we  are  going  to  give  the 
traitors,  that  we  will  make  it  to  be  remem- 
bered by  them  for  eternity.*!  [Cheers.  "  Good  !"1 
The  contest  in  which  we  are  engaged,  is  a  struggle 
for  the  great  idea  underlying  our  political  fabric, 
and  as  we  live  in  an  age  when  opinion  is  the  great 
element  of  power,  it  is  essential  to  our  success  that 
the  true  nature  of  the  struggle  should  be  compre- 
hended by  good  men  at  home  and  abroad.  Some 
reference  to  the  parties  to  it  may  contribute  to  effect 
this  object.  From  the  outset  the  oligarchic  interest 
everywhere  has  been  at  no  loss  on  which  side  to 
range  itself.  Everywhere  it  has  identified  itself 
with  the  Rebellion  because  it  battled  in  the  cause  of 
privilege  and  against  free  Government  and  every- 
where it  has  exerted  itself  promptly,  yet  skillfully, 
to  support  the  Rebel  cause.  Wielding  vast  power 
in  all  European  Governments,  controlling  the  whole 
foreign  press  and  some  of  our  own,  and  assuming 
from  the  first  mutterings  of  the  tempest  that  our 
ship  of  State  was  a  wreck,  as  they  had  always  pre- 
dicted it  would  be,  they  have  looked  on  only  to  find 
facts  to  sustain  a  foregone  conclusion  and  otherwise 
to  exert  all  the  power  they  could  wield  to  consum- 
mate their  wishes.  I  do  not  in  thus  speaking  of  this 
class,  and  especially  of  the  European  branch  of  it, 
wish  to  be  understood  as  impeaching  their  motives 
or  questioning  the  sincerity  of  their  conviction  that 
in  the  preservation  of  their  own  and  kindred  orders 
they  are  doing  the  best  for  mankind.  As  individuals, 
and  especially  is  this  true  of  the  British  aristocracy, 
they  are  distinguished  by  a  high  sense  of  honor, 
by  courage,  truthfulness  and  other  many  qualities. 
But  these  personal  characteristics  only  serve  to  give 
more  effect  to  a  mistaken  policy  in  antagonism  to 
freedom  and  free  government,  which  results  neces- 
sarily from  the  relation  to  society  to  which 
they  are  born  and  bred.  They  justly  feel 
that  the  continuance  of  such  a  Government  as 
ourB  saps  the  foundation  of  their  order  day  by 
day,  and  hence,  though  we  meddle  not 
in  their  affairs  this  class  has  warred  upon  us  from 
the  day  we  set  up  our  democratic  establishment  in 
the  wilds  of  America.  For  the  most  part  this  war 
has  been  carried  on  in  the  field  of  opinion  by  writers 
hired  to  combat  the  natural  yearnings  of  the  human 
heart  for  liberty.  We  have  replied  only  by  contin- 
uing to  minister  to  human  happiness,  giving  free 
homes  to  the  oppressed,  elevating  the  poor  by  in- 


struction in  free  schools  and  by  having  the  Gospel 
preached  to  all  creeds.    There  was  one  point,  how- 
ever, upon  which  every  letter-writer  and  book-mak- 
ing tourist  who  catered  to  the  appetite  of  the  estab- 
lished orders  for  American  disparagement  failed  not 
to  comment  with  the  greatest  harshness.    That  was, 
that  we  tolerated  African  Slavery.     So  bitter  have 
been  these  denunciations  that  many  persons  supposed, 
when  the  war  broke  out,   that  the   English  aristo- 
crats for  once  would  have  to  be  on  the  side  of  those 
who  were  struggling  for  free  government.  Far  from 
it.    Like  most  of  those  among  us  who  are  now  sig- 
nalizing themselves  by  denouncing  the  suspension 
of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,   the  Conscription  act, 
&c,  their  advocacy  of  freedom  was,  as  we  now 
see,  only  to  serve  the  cause  of  Slavery.    It  was  for 
the  freedom  we  cherished,   iiot  for  the  Slavery  we 
tolerated,  tbey  reviled  us.  jTSee  these  proud  aristo- 
crats now,  arming  the  sfWve-drivers  at  Richmond 
with  iron-clad  ships  to  strike   down  Freedom,  for- 
getting even  the  insults  offered  a  few  years  since  by 
their  present  allies,  the  Richmond  snobbery,  to  the 
heir  apparent  of  the   Eoglish  crown  !J  But  do  not 
suppose  that  by  pointing  to  the  evidences  of  sym- 
pathy and  alliance  between  these  domestic  and  for- 
eign foes  of  free  government,   I  seek  to  stir  you  to 
wrath  against  England.     Far  from  it ;    for  while  it 
is  true  that  in  all  essentials  the  British  peer  and 
our    vulgar    Masons    and    Slidells    and    the    silly 
women     who     insult     Union     soldiers     are     the 
same    order    of    people,    differing    only    in    cul- 
tivation  and  external  circumstances,  but  agreeing 
in  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  having  no  faith 
in  humanity;  yet   you  must  remember  that  these 
worldlings  do  not  rule  either  in*England  or  America. 
Despite  of    their  opposition,'  Slavery  was  struck 
down  in  the  British  realm,  and  despite  of  them  the 
great  Republic  will  be  saved,  and  the  slave  machin- 
ery applied  to  subvert  it  destroyed.    I  feel  assured 
of  this,  because  not  only  our  own  people,  but   the 
people  of    Europe,   are   beginning  to  understand, 
what  I  have  said  the  aristocrats  everywhere  have 
understood  from  the  first,  that  this  is  a  battle  for  com- 
mon people  throughout  the  world,  and  that  they 
now  are,  or  soon  will  be,  ready  to  make  common 
cause  for  freedom  against  the  wide -spread  conspiracy 
of  aristocrats  to  destroy  it.      It  is  true   that   Lord 
Lyons  tells  his  Government  that  our  "  Democratic 
leaders"  came  stealthily  to  him  and   made  known 
their  wish  and  purpose  "  to  put  an  end  to  the  war, 
even   at   the   risk  of  losing   the    Southern  States 
altogether,'"  but  "  that  it  was  not  thought  prudent 
to  avow  this    desire,   and  that  some   hints  of  it, 
dropped  before  the  elections,  were  bo  ill  received, 
that  a  strong  declaration  in  the  contrary  sense  was 
deemed  necessary    by  the    Democratic    leaders." 
Lord  Lyons  furtner  states  that  these  Democratic 
"leaders''  thought  "that  the  offer  of  mediation,  if 
made  to  a  Radical  Administration,  would  be  rejected 
— that  if  made  at  an  unpropitious  moment,  it  might 
increase  the  virulence  with  which  the  war  is  prose- 
cuted.   If  their  own  party  were  in  power,  or  virtu- 
ally   controlled    the    Administration,    they  would 
rather,  if  possible,  obtain  an  armistice  without  the 
aid  of   foreign  Governments;  but  they  would   be 
disposed    to    accept    an    ofi'er    ot    mediation,   if   it 
appeared    to     be     the     only     means    of     putting 
a      stop     to      hostilities.       They     would     desire 
that  the  offer  should  come  from  the  great  Powers 
of  Europe,    conjointly;    and,    in    particular,    that 
as  little  prominence  as  possible  should  be  given  to 
Great  Britain."     This  is  the  sum  of  his  lordship's 
revelations,  and  if  it  were  not  that  he  entirely  mis- 
takes the  character  and  influence  of  his  men  they 
might  be  ominous  of  the  result  which  he  and  the 
British  Ministry  so  confidently  predict  and  devoutly 
wish.      If  the    "  chiefs  "    whom    he  describes  at 
"  calling  loudly  for  a  more  vigorous  prosecution  of 
the  war,   and    reproaching  the   Government  with 
slackness  as  well  as  with   want  of  success  in  its 
military  measures,"  but  telling  him  that  it  was  their 
wish  "  to  put  an  end  to  it  at  the  risk  of  losing  the 
Southern  StateB  altogether,"  were  really  as  able  as 


he  supposes  thev  are  to  bring  the  true  Democracy  of 
(be  North  to  adopt  die  plans  of  tbe  Secessionists  for 
tbe  extemion  of  Slavery   to  make  it  the  foundation 
of  the  political   institutions  of  the  country,   or  to 
assent  to  the  division  of  the  conn-cry— resigning  one 
half  of  it.  to  Slavery— <he»,  indeed,  might  tbe  enemies 
of  popular  government  iudulge  their  fond  hope  that 
tbe  bright  prospects  which  opened  on  the  birthday 
of  free  institutions  in  the   New  World,  and  have  at- 
tended its   progress  to  tins   hour,  would  sxm  close. 
But  it  is  apparent  even   from  the  narrative  ot  the 
f  worthy    and     truly    honorable     representative    of 
Eng'and,  that  "  the   leaders  "  who   conferred  with 
him  were  conscious   that  they  could  not  lead  their 
party  to  satction  their  purposes,   that   they  were 
forced  to  disavow  them,   ai  d   advised  postponement 
of  the  offer  of  mediation   till   they  should  come  mto 
power,  which  they  onlv  ho]  ed  to  secure  by  "calling 
loudly  for  a  more   vigo'rous  prosecution  of  the  war, 
and  reproaching  the  Government   with  slackness  as 
well  as  with   want  of  success  in  its  military  meas- 
ures I"      But  the  immense  popukr  useemblies  which 
have  everywhere  denounced  meci-.it ion  of  auy  sort 
show  that  no  such  jugglery  would  avail.    The  most 
distinguished  leaders  of  the  Democracy  in  th  s  great 
commonwealth  attended  the  vast  meeting  of  the  6th 
of  March.      They  are   here  again  to-night.    They 
unite  in  council  with  the  members  of  the  Republican 
partv,  with  the  chiefs  of  the  old  Whig  party,  with 
those  of  the  original  Anti-Slavery  party,  with  the 
American   party,  peculiarly  jealous  of  foreign  liiflu- 
ence,  and  with  these  of  other  strong  classes  which 
embrace  with  a  sort  of  kindred  sympathy  the  natural- 
ized citizens  of  all  Europe  as  brothers  eniranchiaed 
from  feudal  fetters,  and  lining  here  to  usefulness  and 
influence  as  the  equals  of  the  native  born  freeman. 
Every  party  and  every  class  by  whom  free  institu- 
tions are  held  dear  in  this  country,  merging  all  minor 
-differences  of  opinion,  are  gathering  in  every  quarter 
to  devise  measures  to  restore  the   nationality,  secure 
the  literties  of  the  country,  and  to  give  effect  to 
these,  the  shouts  of  battle  frow-  a  million  of  brave 
men  are  heard  by  land  and  sea.L  They  see  the  feudal 
lord3  who  hold  the  slaves  in  the  South  in  bondage, 
to  raise  the  commodities  on  which  tbe  laborers  of  the 
feudal  lords  in  Europe  are  to  exhaust  their  energies 
to  exalt  toeir   privileged  orders,   are  supported  by 
such  orders  because  of  a  common  interest  in  tie  en- 
slavement of  mankind.    And  if  the  vassalage  which 
holds  the  black  race  as  mere  animated  machines,  and 
is  rapidly  reducing  tbe  poor  whites  of  the  South  to 
a  dependence  and  suffering,  rendering  the  fate  of  the 
slave  of  a  kind  master  enviable— if  such  vassalage 
is  to  be  upheld  by  the  great  modern  dyuabties  abroad, 
combining  their  military  power  to  give  support  to 
the  despotic  principle   in  a  nation  separated  from 
them   by  tbe   ocean,  how  long  will  it  be    before 
such     armed      usurpation     here     will,      by     its 
reactionary    force,    recover    the    arbitrary    power 
that    belonged    to  the  age  of    the  Bourbons,   tbe 
Tudors,  and  of  that  horde  of  feudal  proprietors  who 
monopolized  the  soil,  holding  tbe  people  as  seris  ap- 
purtenant to  the  domain  of   masters,  rising  as  a  su- 
perstructure of  oppression  througti  grades  irom  ba- 
rons, counts,  dukes,  princes,  kiugs,  and  emperors  to 
autocrats  1     Our  Southern  chivalry,   which    but   a 
generation  back  signed  our  Magna  Charta  of  liberty 
and  equality,  in  the  course  of   one  lifetime,  by  the 
indoctrination  of  tne  Slave  system,  working  on  one 
poor  oppressed  caste,  are  alieady  prepared    to   join 
the  Hoi  v  Alliance  abroad  in  making  a  partition    of 
this  continent  and  setting  up  dynasties  deriviug  their 
type  from  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  aud  they  have  an 
improved  feature  on  tne  old  feudal  system,   tending 
to  reinvigorate  it.    Io  that  State  which  led    off   in 
tbe  assault  upon  the  Union,  the  ownership    of   ten 
slaves,  or  an  equivalent,  was  an  essential  qualifica- 
tion for  a  legis.ator.    Carrying  out    this    principle, 
the  Confederate  Cot  gress  lias  decreed  that    twenty 
slaves    6hall    exempt    the  master  from  military  ser- 
vice.   This  will  operate  as  a  premium  for  multiply- 
ing slaves  and  divide  the  community  into  two  great 
classes,  the  producers  and  the  soldiery;  creating   a 


military  government,  one  portion  of   the    people  to 
tight,  the  o'her  to  feed  the  fighters.    Tne  starveling 
whites    not    suited  to  war  and  not  subjected  as  sol- 
diers will  become  slaves  to  the  owners  of  estates  on 
who'ii  they  must  depend.     That  the  crowned   beads 
of    Europe,    who    are  invited  to  make  the  political 
constitutions  of  this  continent,  as  well  as  its  cotton,      I 
their    concern,    should    have  a  disposition  to  admit 
States   into   the    Holy   Alliance  which  gives  such 
earnest  of  hostility  to  free  government,  is  not  un- 
natural.     But    what  will    the     more   enlightened 
portion     of    the    European    population    thiuk    of 
thia^lonibinatioii     with    slaveholders     to     extir- 
pateWiberty    iu    America  J  J  Tne   organs    of  the 
privileged  orders  in   GreanSritain,   the  Quarterly 
Review,    The.    Times,   &c,   already  congratulated 
their  patrons  on  the  fact  that  Rebellion  here  has  ar- 
rested Reform  in  England.      They   proclaim  that 
Lords  Palmerston  and  Russell  reached  their  power 
in  England  by  pledges  of  reform,  and  now  they  re- 
joice that  the  Rebellion  has  exonerated  them  from 
their  obligation  !    They   would  now,  for  the  third 
time,  attempt  to   crush  the  free  principles  which, 
nurtured   here  beyond  tbe  reach  of  aespotic  coali- 
tions, has  attained  a  prosperity,   spreading  an  influ- 
ence back  to  the  country  of  their  origin,  reforming 
their  Government  aud  elevating  their  people;  and 
it  is  in  the  interest  of  the  selfish  few  that  the  pro- 
gress of  nations  iu  reform,  in   freedom  and  happi- 
ness, is  to  be  urrested.      Is  it  possible  that  a  great 
war,  waged  by  the  potentates  of  Europe,  in  alliance 
with   the   6lave  system  propagated  in  the   South, 
against  the  Free  States  of  America,  will  be  cordially 
supported  by  the  substantial,  intelligent  body  of  the 
European  populations  ?      Can  Lord  Lyons  persuade 
himself  or  them  that  there  are  Democratic  leaders 
in  the  Free  States  capable  of  drawing  the  Demo- 
cratic masses  to  join  foreign  powers  in  mediating  a 
peace  dividing  the  empire  of  free  government  on 
this  continent  with   Slavery,  European  sovereigns 
to  nold  the  balance  of  the  continent  ?      No  patriot, 
no    honest  man    of   any   party,    no    Democrat    of 
influence    with    a  party    which    has    never    been 
wanting  to  the  country  when  its   fortunes  hung 
upon    the    Bcale    of    battle,     could     have    made,' 
the  questions  which  were  submitted  to  Lord  Lyons.  k 
Davis,    Benjamin,    Floyd    and  Toombs  call  them- 
selves   Democrats.     Tu'eir    emissaries   in    Europe, 
S'idell,   Sanders  and  Mason,  call  themselves  Demo- 
crats.  Their  creatures  in  the  Free  States,  Buchanan, 
Toucey,  and  the  subaltern  traitors  associated  with 
tbein,  spared  by  the  clemency  of  tbe  Administration, 
call  themselves  Democrats.     But  these  inen  iu  the 
North  are  only  so  mauy  men  on  gibbets.  VThe  real 
Democrats  everywhere  are  with  the  real  Republicans, 
in  arms  for  tbeir  country  and  its  Constitution  j  It  is 
not  the  interest  of  nations  to  destroy  each  othe"r,  and 
1  hope  no  nation  will  interpose  in  any  way  to  coun- 
tenance the   treason  which  has  no  object  but  the 
overthrow  of    republican   institutions.      The    only 
effect  would  be   to  embitter  and  prolong  the  strife. 
England  especially,  which  has  some  consciousness  of 
the  value  of  such  institutions,  and  has  evinced  a  full 
sense  of  the  mischiefs  of  the  slave  power  now  seek- 
ing her  help  to  sacrifice  them  here,  will,  I  doubt  not, 
recoil  from  the  leprous   touch.    There  was  a  time, 
indeed,  when  even  that  very    class  of  Englishmen 
who  would  now  see  the  Great  Republic  fall  with  so 
much  satisfaction,  looked  toward  it  with  very  differ- 
ent feelings.    It   was   when  they  apprehended   in- 
vasion from  France.    Then   the   Free  States  of  this 
continent,  proud  of  their  race  and  of  the  inspira'ion, 
reepouded  to  the  patriotic  heart  of  Briuiu.     lhey 
did  not  intend  to  be  passive  while  "  the  Laiio  race  ' 
established    their    ascendancy    in    the    fatherland. 
At  that  dread  ciiris,   English   statesmen  recognized 
the  value  of  this  kindred  sympathy,  and   honored 
the  magnanimity  wnicb,  forgetting  the   oppression 
dealt  to  us  as  an  infant   people  aspiring  to  equality, 
with  their  brethren  beyond  the  Atlantic— remember 
iog  oniy  tbe  glorv  of  a  common  lineage,  language^ 
and  literature— they  felt,  aud  with  reason,  that  tne 
mutual  abhorrence  of  Slavery  iu  whatever  form  lm- 


posed,  would  induce  the  Government  of  the  United 
Mates  to  make  common  cause  with  Eogland  against 
any  attempt  to  invade  or  enslave  her.    But  now  that 
their  apprehensions  of  danger  from  across  the  Chan- 
nel are  for  the  time  allayed,  and  they  feel  no  present 
need  of  help,  the  feeling  for  America,  which  for  a 
moment  expanded  the  hearts  even  of  the   English 
lordliogs,  has  passed  away.    They  have   become  as 
earnest  as  iu  '76  to  overthrow  our  Government,  and 
are  co-operating  with  the  Rebels,  as  wit!)  the  Tories, 
in   every  post-ible  way  short   of  declared  war,  and 
have  clearly  evinced  their  disposition  to  take  even 
that  s'ep  whenever  we  will   give  them  a  pretext  for 
it  which   will  carry  the  people  of   England  with 
them.    We  cannot  therefore   be  too  careful  not  to 
furnish  the  desired  pretext,  especially  when  the  peo- 
ple of  Europe  as  well  as  of  America  are  awakening 
to  their  interest   in  this  struggle.     We   bad   better 
suffer  for  a  time  from  the  pirates  set  afloat  in   En- 
gland, aud  harbored  and  provisioned  iu  their  West 
Iud  a    possessions,   to  devastate  our  commerce,  to 
enable  the  English  nation  to  put  a  stop  to  these  out- 
rages.   I  have  confidence  that  they  will  do  it,  and  I 
much  prefer  the  mode  adopted  by  the  real  nobl-men 
of  New  York  to  touch  the  hearts  of  the  real  nobility 
of  England — the  men  who  love  truth  and  justice — 
to  whom  alone  6he  owes  her  greatness  among  the 
nations     of     the    earth— to    that      proposed     by 
my     friend,      General     Butler.        To   "send    the 
starving  poor  of    England  cargoes  of  food,  while 
her  aristocrats  are  turning  loose  upon  us  piratical 
vessels,  tells  more  than  words  can  express  of  the  na- 
ture of  this  struggle  and  who  are  allies  in  it.     I  will 
venture  to  affirm  that  the  mediating  leaders  who 
.  visited  the  British  Minister  in  November  are   not 
among  those  who,  while  exhibiting  such  munificence 
toward  his  countrymen,  were  lavishing  millions  to 
sustain  free  government,  although  most  of  them  are 
Democrats.^jThe    Rebellion  here,  this  reactionary 
measure  against,  free  government,  reacts  across  the 
water,  stops  all  progress,  all  beneficence  and  reform 
for  the  people  of  Europe.     That  is  the  nature  of  this 
contest.    You  cannot,   therefore,   if   you  love  your- 
selves,  your  rights,   and  the  rights  of  those  whom 
you  are  to  leave    behind    you,    if   you  love  your 
brothers  in  fatherland,  and  wish  to  have  an  asylum 
for  them,  and  to  extend  the   principles  of  liberty  in 
the  old  continent,  you  cannot  but  "stand  up  for  the 
Government  you  have  installed  here,  regardless  for 
the  moment   of  whom    you    have  placed  in  power. 
I  am  a  member,    as    my  friend  said,  of  the  existing 
Government,  and  I  say  to  you    here,    although    its 
measures  may   not    meet  the    approval  of  some  of 
you,  yet,  rely  upon  it,   you  have  as  honest  a  man  as 
ever  God  made  installed  in  the  chair  of  the  Chief  Mag- 
istrate.    [Loud  applause.]    We  have  a  man  from  the 
people,   like  many  of  those  I  see  before  me,  having 
a  heart  sympathetic  for  the  masses,  a  mau  working 
his  way  from  an  humble  and  obscure  position  up  to 
the   elevated   position    that  he  now  fills,  and,    of 
course,  he  feels,  and  feels  deeply,  as  one  of  you,  t'-e 
nature  of  tbe  struggle  that  I  have  been  endeavoring 
to  paint.    You  must  support  him,  my  friends.     It  is 
your  cause;    not  his.      [Three  cheers  for  the  Presi- 
dent.]    Thanking  you  again,  my  friends,  for  the  cor- 
diality and  kindners  with  which  you  have  been  pleased 
to  receive  me,  I  give  way  to  "others  who  can  add 
much  to  what  I  have  said,  and  say  it  better.     [Pro- 
longed cheers.]. 
Calls  for  "  Butler"  and  "  Fremont." 
John  Austin  Stevens,  jr.,  read  the  letter  from 
Secretary  Chase.    It  was  received  with  frequent  ap- 
plause. 

Loud  calls  for  "  Fremont." 

Mayor  Opdyke— Gentlemen,  I  have  now  the 
pleasure  cf  introducing  to  you  a  distinguished  aDd 
eloquent  representative  in  Congress  from  a  6ister 
State,  a  gentleman  who  has  stood  by  the  Govern- 
ment manfully  and  fearlessiy;  I  introduce  to  you 
Judge  Keliey  of  Philadelphia.  [Loud  appUute.J 


D.   KELLEY. 

name  of  uncondl- 
Philadelphia 


SPEECH  OP   THE  HON.    W". 
Judge  Kellet   said:  In  the 
tional    loyaltv    to   the  Constitution, 
greets  New  York.     [Cheers.]    In  the  name  of  the 
unity  of  that  country,  founded  by  the  original  of  that 
grand  monument  [the  statue  of  Washington  was  im- 
mediately in  front  of  the  stand],  the  Keystone  sends 
greeting  to  the  Empire  State.     [Applause.]  And  this 
after  two  years  of  war — two  years  of  war!     We  of 
Pennsylvania  have  tears  for  the  dead,  sympathy  for 
the  mangled  and  the  bereaved,  but  these  are  for  our 
individual  hearts,  our  private  circles;  for  our  country 
we  have  but  pride  and  devotion    [cheering  "Gaodf, 
good"];  two  years   of  war  in  which  the   Ruler  o€ 
Providence  has  more  clearly  than  ever  before  in 
history,  demonstrated  how  from  seeming  evil  He  \g 
educing  good,  how  within  His  purposes  it  is  to  make 
the    folly    and    wrath    of    men    to     praise     Him 
[cheers] ;   two   years   in     which     the     American 
people     have     made    more      of   glorious    history 
than    ever  was    made    before    in    the    same  brief 
period.     O,   my  countrymen,   look   back  over  that 
little  period  of  two  years  and  remember  when  in  the 
first  wild  outburst  of  wounded  and  indignant  patriot- 
ism you  gathered  to  this  square.     Your  country  was 
bankrupt;  you  could  not    oorrow  at  one  per  cent  a 
month  the  little  sum  of  $5,000,  COO;  your  navy  lay  in 
Southern  yards  iu  ordinary,  upon  the  distant  coast 
of  Africa  or  in  the  far  Pacific;  your  army  was  on  the 
froniiers  of  Texas,  in  New  Mexico,  in  the  far  Terri- 
tory of  Washington,   everywhere   but  where  your 
Government     could    command    it  ;    your    arsenals 
emptied  alike  of  arms  and  ammunition"  and  accouter- 
ments;  an  enemy,  strengthened   by  your  navy  and 
by  your  military  resources,  had  fired  upon  your  flag 
and  threatened  to  unfurl  from  the  dome  of   your 
capitol  a  foreign   banner,    but  the  heart  of  America 
did  not  tremble,  and  two  year3  of  war,  even  disasters, 
has  not  chilled  or  bated  our  patriotism.     [Cheers, 
"  No,  no."]     We  are  here  to-day  to  say  that  no  star 
must  be  stricken  from  our  flag   ["  Neyer"l ;  no  acre 
of  our  country   surrendered  if  it. takes  from    our 
lockers  the  last  dollar  and  from  our  hearth-sides  the 
last  able-bodied  boy.     [Cheers,  "  Hurrah."]    These 
are  the  sentiments  of  Pennsylvania,  and  I  am  glad 
yoa  respond  to  them  with  such  fervor.  We  behold  all 
the  possible  consequences  of  the  war ;  we  have  made  a 
navy ;  we  have  made  an  army  such  as  the  eye  of  God 
never  beheld  before  upon  this  planet;  we  have  con- 
quered in  two  years  well-nigh  400,000  square  miles 
of  territory.     ["  Good  !  good  !"]     We  have  not  bor- 
rowed of  England  or  the  Continent,  or  any  foreign 
man  or  nation,  one  picayune  toward  bearing  the  ex- 
pense.    [Applause.]     Oh,  my  friends,  this  is  a  proud 
day.     We    had  demonstrated,  before  Rebel  hands 
desecrated  our  flag,  the   beneficence    of  republican 
institutions.      In  eighty  short  years  we  had  con- 
quered a  Continent.      Yes,   our  flag  floated  on  yon 
Eastern  promontories  in  the  broad  blaze  of  the  noon- 
day sun,  while  there  on  our  golden  sands,  the  morn- 
iag  dawn  just  tipped  its    stars,    and  all  was  ours, 
and  civilization  was  blooming  over  all.    We  had 
demonstrated  the  capacity   of  man  for  self-govern- 
ment ani  of  popular  institutions,  raised  the  poor  emi- 
grant and  his  children  to  the  fall  stature  of  manhood 
aud  to  all  the  powers  and  rights  of  citizenship,  nay, 
to  the  capacity  not  only   to   enjoy,    but   to  exercise 
them  all.     [Cheers.j     The  potentates  of  Europe  had 
seen  the  peasant  and  the  laborer  expand  into  the 
citizen     and     the     capitalist;       tbey    bad     seen 
from    the    humblest      walks     of     life     the    man 
of     honor,       wealth,      and       distinction      epriag. 
Eighty    years    had    served    to    demonstrate    tins. 
But,  was  their  sneer — a  good  Government  lor  peace, 
yet  no  Government  for  war.      Is  it  not  a  Govern- 
ment for  war  1    When   Congress  passed  what  the 
Copperheads  call  the  Conscription   bill,  and  served 
notice  upou  France  and   England  that  every  maa 
Who  had  not  defending  upon   him,  and  him  alone, 
aged  pareuta  or  tender  cbilaooJ,   should  be  called  to 


6 


the  field,  they  concluded  that  all  Enrope  in  alliance 
would  not  do  to  meet  the  American  people  under 
that  Government  which  was  not  good  for  war. 
[Cheers.]  So  good  fur  war  that,  while  we  go  on  to 
conquer  those  who  are  armed  with  our  resources, 
we  hold  the  envious  aristocntey  of  Europe  in  check, 
and  dare  them  to  do  their  worst  [cheers],  and  dare 
them  bo  defiantly,  that  I  refer  you  to  the  New  York 
papers  of  the  day  for  the  altered  opinion  of  Lord 
John  Russell,  a*  expressed  in  the  House  of  Lords. 
[Cheers.  "  Give  it  to  him  !"  "  Bully  !"|  Bully  for 
the  American  people.  [Cheers.]  Bully  for  those 
institutions  ["Bully  for  K-lUy  ' )  that  open  the 
sehoel-hoiise  lor  the  poor  child,  and  give  a  just  re- 
turn for  all  the  labor  that  he  or  his  parents  perform. 
What  is  this  war  1  What  is  it  about?  Between  whom 
i*  it,  men  of  New  York?  ["Three  cheers  for  Kelley."] 
0,  do  not  cheer  so  insignificant  a  being;  keep  quiet, 
and  hear  him.  Is  it  between  political  parties  1  No; 
here  on  tuis  stand  are  men  of  all  parties.  I  do  not 
know  what  party  I  belong  to.  I  was  tool  or  sinner 
enough  to  tiasteu  home  in  1852  to  vote  for  Frank 
Tierce,  and  since  tben  I  have  been  fighting  for  free- 
dom and  civilization  in  the  ranks  of  the  Republican 
party.  [Cheers;  "Good."]  No,  my  friends,  not 
between  political  parties;  nor  is  it  between  contend- 
ing States.  The  line  seems  to  divide  States,  but 
take  the  exception.  East  Tennessee  and  West  Vir- 
ginia are  loyal  as  New  York  or  Pennsylvania 
t"  Good,  gooa"],  though  one  of  them  lies  south  of 
Kentucky,  and  the  other  has  been  held  by  Eastern 
Virginia, as  Russia  holds  Poland,  or  as  England  has 
held  Ireland.  [Cheers.]  Yet  they  are  loyal.  It  is  a  war 
between  two  orders  of  civilization — the  order  of 
civilization  wl ich  we  enjoy,  which  opens  a  school- 
house  to  everv  child  comintr  into  the  commonwealth 
hv  birth  or  emigration;  which  gives  to  the  eon  of  the 
poorest  laborer,  whether  of  native  orforeign  birth,  the 
mastery  of  the  English  language,  the  art  of  writing 
and  of  figures,  and  enables  him  to  go  forth  and  arm 
himself  with  'snowledge,  and  wisdom,  and  power  to 
contend  with  the  world  and  get  a  fair  day's  wages 
for  a  fair  day's  work.  The  other  order  of  civiliza- 
tion is  one  which  hold3  that  capital  should  own  its 
labor;  that  laboring  men  and  women  should  be  held 
for  sale  and  purchase  like  cattle  in  the  stall  or  upon 
the  shamtdes.  And,  my  friends,  do  not  let  us  blink 
the  question.  The  taking  of  Fort  Sumter,  the  tak- 
ing of  VickBbnrg,  will  nut  settle  the  war.  One  or 
the  other  of  these  orders  of  civilization  must  be  vic- 
torious, tiiumpbant  over  the  whole  land  before  you 
can  have  peace.  [Cheers.  "That's  the  talk."] 
You  have  heard  from  Secretary  Chase.  Like  him, 
I  am  for  letting  the  darkey  in.  I  do  not  think  he  is 
a  bit  better  than  I  or  you,  and  I  do  not  see  why  he 
should  not  do  picket  duty  in  the  swamps  as  well  as 
I  or  my  son.  I  do  not  see  why  he  should  not  work 
for  us  as  ably  as  he  worked  for  his  enemy,  and  I  am 
for  letting  him  in,  and  letting  him,  under  the  Stars  and 
Stripes,  win  his  way  to'  freedom  by  proving  on  the 
bloody  field  the  power  of  bis  manhood.  ["  Bravo." 
Applause.]  This  we  have  to  do.  This  we  will  do. 
And  having  done  it,  we  will — having  sunk  the 
traitors,  from  Fernando  up  or  down,  whichever  it 
might  be — [laughter  and  applause] — we  will  have 
Bunk  them  deeper  than  ever  plummet  eounded;  we 
will  have  so  equelched  treason  that  our  children  and 
our  children's  children  to  the  latest  generation  will 
never  fear  another  civil  war.  We  will  haVe  peace 
-with  England  and  with  France,  and,  what  is  more, 
■vve  will  bave  demonstrated  to  the  world  the  power 
lis  well  as  the  beneficence  of  republican  institutions; 
we  will  have  shown  the  world  that  that  Constitution 
iri.med  under  his  [pointing  to  the  statue  of  Washing- 
ton] wise  auspices  is  not  only  beneficent  over  a 
young  and  peaceful  people,  but  is  a  fit  canopy — I  say 
is  a  fit  canopy  for  a  continent.  [Loud  and  prolonged 
applause,  and  three  cheers  for  Kelley] 

Loud  calls  for  "  Fremont." 

The  Mayor,  amid  loud  applause,  introduced  Brig.- 
Gen.  Crawford  of  Penn.,  one  of  the  defenders  of 
Fort  Sumter  under  Major  Andersen. 

Speeches  were    subsequently  made  by  Benj.  H. 


Brewster,  esq.,  of  Philadelphia;  Col.  S'ewait  I.. 
Woodford,  Col.  Taylor,  and  ex-Councilman  Horatio 
N.  Wild;  and  an  ode  was  read  by  WilliBm  Robs 
Wallace;  after  which,  as  the  -hades  of  night  wen 
falling,  the  Mayor  adjourned  the  meeting,  with  loud 
cheers  for  the  Union  and   the  Star-Spangled  Banner. 


ADDRESS  BY  FRANCIS  LIEBER, 

CHAIRMAN    ON  THE  COUNCIL'S  COMMITTEE  OX 
ADDRESSES. 

Rt  a, I  a/  I  In  Meeting  of  the  Loyal  Nationa   Lean 
by  their  request,  in  Union  Square,  New  Yor 

on  the  Wlh  of  April,  L8< 

It   is  just    ami  wise   that    men    ei  >n    a 

greal   and   arduous  cause  should   profess  anew, 
from  time  to  time,  their  faith,  and  pledge  fchi 
selves  to  one  another,  to  stand  by  their  can-'1  to 
the  last  extremity,  even  at  the  sacrifice  of  ail 
they  have  and  all  that  God  has  given   them — 
their  wealth,  their  blood,   and  their  children's 
blood.    We  solemnly  pledge  all  this  to  our  cause, 
for  it  is  the  cause  of  our  country  and  her  noble 
history,  of  freedom,  and  justice,  ami   truth — II 
the  cause  of  all  we  hold  dearest    oil   this  earth: 
We  profess  and  pledge   this— plainly,  broadly, 
openly,  in  the  cheering  time  of  Buccess,  and  m 
fervently  in  the  day  of  trial  and  revel 

We  recollect  how,  two  years  ago,  when  rt 
less  arrogance  attacked  Fort  Sumter,  the  response 
to  that  boom  of  treasonable  cannon  was  rend,  in 
our  city,  in  the  flag  of  our  country — waving  fn 
every  steeple  and  school-house,  from  City  Hall 
and  court  house,   from  ever}'  shop  window  and 
market-stall,  and  fluttering  in  the  hand  of  every 
child  and  on  the  head  gear  of  every  horse  in  tic 
busy  street.     Two  years  have  passed;   uncounted       { 
sacrifices  have  been  made — sacrifices  of  wealth, 
of  blood,'  and  limb,  and  life — of  friendship  and 
brotherhood,  of  endeared  and  hallowed  pursuits- 
and  sacred  lies — and  still  the  civil  war  is  raging 
in  bitterness  and  heart-burning — still  we  make 
the  same  profession, and  still  we  pledge  ourselves 
firmly  to  hold  on  to  our  cause  and  persevere  in 
the   struggle   into   which  unrighteous  men,    be- 
wildered   by   pride   and    stimulated    by    bitter 
hatred, "have  plunged  us. 

We  profess  ourselves  to  be  loyal  citizens  of 
these  United  States;  and  by  loyalty  we  mean  a 
candid  and  loving  devotion  to  the  object  to 
which  a  loyal  man — a  loyal  husband,  a  loyal 
friend,  a  loyal  citizen — devotes  himself.  We  es- 
chew the  attenuated  argument  derived  by  trifling 
scholars  from  meagre  etymology.  We  take  the 
core  and  substance  of  this  weighty  word,  and 
pledge  ourselves  that  we  will  loyally — not  merely 
outwardly  and  formally,  according  to  the  letter, 
but  fervently  and  according  to  the  spirit — adhere 
to  our  country,  to  her  institutions,  to  freedom 
and  her  power,  and  to  that  great  institution 
called  the  government  of  our  couDtry,  founded 
by  our  fathers,  and  loved  by  their  sons  and  by 
ail  right-minded  men  who  have  become  citizens 
of  this  land  by  choice  and  not  by  birth — wbo 
have  wedded  this  country  in  the  maturity  of 
their  age  as  verily  their  own.  We  pledge  our- 
selves as  national  men  devoted  to  the  nationality  ( ' 
of  this  great  people.  Iso  government  can  wholly 
dispense  with  loyalty,  except  the  fiercest  despot- 
ism ruling  by  naked  intimidation;  but  a  republic 
stands  in  greater  need  of  it  than  any  other  gov- 


{ 


•eminent,  and  most  of  all  a  republic  beset  by 
open  rebellion  and  insidious  treason.  Loyalty  is 
pre-eminently  a  civic  virtue  in  a  free  country. 
It  is  patriotism  cast  in  the  graceful  mold  of 
candid  devotion  to  the  harmless  government  of 
an  unshackled  nation. 

In  pledging  ourselves  thus  we  know  of  no  party. 
Parties  are  unavoidable  in  free  countries,  and  may 
be  useful  if  they  acknowledge  the  country  far 
above  themselves  and  remain  within  the  sanctity 
of  the  fundamental  law  which  protects  the  enjoy- 
ment of  liberty  prepared  for  all  within  its  sacred 
domain.  But  Party  has  no  meaning  in  far  the 
greater  number  of  the  highest  and  the  com- 
mon relations  of  human  life.  When  we  are  ail- 
ing, we  do  not  take  medicine  by  party  prescrip- 
tion. "We  do  not  build  ships  by  party  measure- 
ment ;  we  do  not  pray  for  our  daily  bread  by 
party  distinctions ;  we  do  not  take  our  chosen 
•  ones  to  our  bosoms  by  party  demarcations,  nor 
do  we  eat  or  drink,  sleep  or  wake,  as  partisans. 
We  do  not  enjoy  the  flowers  of  spring,  nor  do 
we  harvest  the  grain,  by  party  lines.  We  do  not 
incur  punishments  for  infractions  of  the  com- 
mandments according  to  party  creeds ;  and  we 
do  not,  we  must  not,  love  and  defend  our  country 
and  our  liberty,  dear  to  us  as  part  and  portion 
of  our  very  selves,  according  to  party  rules  and 
divisions.  Woe  to  him  who  does.  When  a  house 
is  on  fire,  and  a  mother  with  her  child  cries  for 
help  at  the  window  above,  shall  the  firemen  at 
the  engine  be  allowed  to  trifle  away  the  precious 
time  in  party  bickerings,  or  is  then  the  only 
word — "  Water !  pump  away  ;  up  with  the  lad- 
der !" 

Let  us  not  be  like  the  Byzantines,  those 
wretches  who  quarreled  about  contemptible 
party  refinements,  theological  though  they  were, 
while  the  truculent  Mussulman  was  steadily 
.  ft  drawing  nearer — nay,  some  of  whom  would  even 
go  to  the  lord  of  the  crescent,  and  with  a  craven 
heart  would  beg  for  a  pittance  of  the  spoil,  so 
that  they  would  be  spared,  and  could  vent  their 
party  hatred  against  their  kin  in  blood,  and 
fellows  in  religion. 

We  know  of  no  party  in  our  present  troubles  ; 
the  word  is  here  an  empty  word.  The  only  line 
which  divides  the  people  of  the  north  runs  be- 
tween the  mass  of  loyal  men,  who  stand  by  their 
country,  no  matter  to  what  place  of  political 
meeting  they  were  used  to  resort,  or  with  what 
accent  they  utter  the  language  of  the  land,  or 
what  religion  they  profess,  or  what  sentiments 
they  may  have  uttered  in  the  excitement  of 
former  discussions,  on  the  one  hand,  and  those, 
on  the  other  hand,  who  keep  outside  of  that 
line — traitors  to  their  country  in  the  hour  of 
need,  or  those  who  allow  themselves  to  be  misled 
by  shallow  names,  and  by  reminiscences  which 
cling  around  those  names  from  bygone  days, 
finding  no  application  in  a  time  which  asks  for 
tilings  more  sterling  than  names,  theories,  or 
platforms. 

If  an  alien  enemy  were  to  land  his  hosts  on 
3'our  shores,  would  you  fly  to  your  arms  and 
ring  the  tocsin  because  your  country  is  in  danger, 
or  would  you  meditatively  look  at  your  sword 
and  gun,  and  spend  your  time  in  pondering 
whether  the  administration  in  power,  which 
4  uust  and  can  alone  direct  the  defence  of  your 
hearths,  has  a  right  to  be  styled  by  this  or  that 
party  name,  or  whether  it  came  into  power  with 


your  a-sistance,  and  will  appoint  some  of  your 
party  to  posts  of  honor  or  comfortable  emolu- 
ments? And  will  any  one  now  lose  his  time 
and  fair  name  as  an  honest  and  brave  citizen, 
when  no  foreigner,  indeed,  threatens  your  coun- 
try, at  least  not  directly,  but  far  more,  when  a 
heedless  host  of  law-defying  men,  heaping  upon 
you  the  vilest  vituperation  that  men  who  do  not 
leave  behind  them  the  ingenuity  uf  civilization 
when  they  relapse  into  barbarism,  can  invent — 
when  this  host  threatens  to  sunder  your  country 
and  cleave  your  very  history  in  twain,  to  deprive 
you  of  your  rivers  which  God  has  given  you,  to 
extinguish  your  nationality,  to  break  down  your 
liberty,  and  to  make  that  land,  which  the  dis- 
tributor of  our  sphere's  geography  has  placed 
between  the  old  and  older  world  as  the  greatest 
link  of  that  civilization  which  is  destined  to  en- 
circle the  globe — to  make  that  land  the  hot-bed 
of  angry,  petty  powers,  sinking  deeper  and  deeper 
as  they  quarrel  and  fight,  and  quarreling  and 
fighting  more  angrily  as  they  sink  deeper  ?  It  is 
the  very  thing  your  foreign  enemies  desire  and 
have  long  desired.  When  nullification  threaten- 
ed to  bring  about  secession — and  the  term  seces- 
sion was  used  at  that  early  period — foreign 
journals  stated  in  distinct  words  that  England 
was  deeply  interested  in  the  contest;  for  nullifi- 
cation might  bring  on  secession,  and  secession 
would  cause  a  general  disruption — an  occurrence 
which  would  redound  to  the  essential  benefit  of 
Great  Britain. 

But  the  traitors  of  the  North,  who  have  been 
so  aptly  called  adders  or  copperheads — striking 
as  these  reptiles  do  more  secretly  and  deadly 
even  than  the  rattlesnake,  which  has  some  chiv- 
alry, at  least,  in  its  tail — believe,  or  pretend  to 
believe,  that  no  fragmentary  disruption  would 
follow  a  division  of  our  country  into  North  and 
South,  and  advocate  a  compromise  by  which 
they  pretend  to  believe  that  the  two  portions 
may  possibly  be  reunited  after  a  provisional 
division,  as  our  peddlers  putty  some  broken  china 
cup. 

As  to  the  first,  that  we  might  pleasantly  divide 
into  two  comfortable  portions,  we  prefer  being 
guided  by  the  experience  of  all  history,  to  fol- 
lowing the  traitors  in  their  teachings.  We  will 
not  hear  of  it.  We  live  in  an  age  when  the 
word  is  nationalization,  not  denationalization ; 
when  fair  Italy  has  risen,  like  a  new-born  god- 
dess, out  of  the  foaming  waves  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean. All  destruction  is  quick  and  easy ;  all 
growth  and  formation  is  slow  and  toilsome.  Na- 
tions break  up,  like  splendid  mirrors  dashed  to 
the  ground.  They  do  not  break  into  a  number 
of  well-shaped,- neatly  framed,  little  looking- 
glasses.  But  a  far  more  solemn  truth  even  than 
this  comes  here  into  play.  It  is  with  nations  as 
with  families  and  with  individuals,  Those  des- 
tined by  nature  to  live  in  the  bonds  of  friendship 
and  mutual  kindliness  become  the  bitterest  and 
most  irreconcilable  enemies,  when  once  fairly 
separated  in  angiy  enmity,  in  precisely  the  same 
degree  in  which  affection  and  good-will  was  in- 
tended to  subsist  between  them.  We  must  have 
back  the  South,  or  else  those  who  will  not  re- 
unite with  us  must  leave  the  country  ;  we  must 
have  the  country  at  any  price.  If,  however,  a 
plain  division  between  the  North  and  the  South 
could  take  place,  who  will  deny  that  those  very 
trgitpra  would  instantly  begin  to  maneuver  for  a 


8 


gradual  annexation  of  the  North  to  the  South? 
It  is  known  to  be  so.  Some  of  them,  void  of 
all  shame,  have  avowed  it.  They  are  ready  to 
petition  on  their  knees  for  annexation  to  the 
South,  and  to  let  the  condescending  grantor, 
"  holding  the  while  his  nose,"  introduce  slavery, 
that  blessed  "corner-stone  of  the  newest  "  civili- 
zation." into  the  North,  which  has  been  happily 
purged  from  this  evil.  Let  us  put  the  heel  on 
this  adder  and  bruise  all  treason  out  of  its  head. 

As  to, the  compromise  which  they  propose,  we 
know  of  no  compromise  with  crime  that  is  not 
criminal  itself,  and  senseless  in  addition  to  its 
being  wicked.  New  guarantees,  indeed,  may  be 
asked  for  at  the  proper  time,  but  it  is  now  our 
turn  to  ask  for  them.  They  will  be  guaran- 
tees of  peace,  of  the  undisturbed  integrity  of 
our  country,  of  law,  and  liberty,  and  security, 
asked  for  and  insisted  upon  by  the  Union  men, 
who  now  pledge  themselves  not  to  listen  to  the 
words  compromise,  new  guarantees  for  the  South, 
armistice,  or  convention  of  delegates  from  the 
South  and  North — as  long  as  this  war  shall  last, 
until  the  North  is  victorious,  and  shall  have  es- 
tablished again  the  national  authority  over  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  country  as  it  was; 
over  the  United  States  dominion  as  it  was  before 
the  breaking  out  of  the  crime  which  is  now  ruin- 
ing our  fair  land — ruining  it  in  point  of  wealth, 
but,  with  God's  help,  elevating  it  in  character, 
strength,  and  dignity. 

We  believe  that  the  question  of  the  issue, 
which  must  attend  the  present  contest,  according 
to  the  character  it  has  now  acquired,  is  reduced 
to  these  simple  words:  Either  the  North  con- 
quers the  South,  or  the  South  conquers  the  North. 
Make  up  your  minds  for  this  alternative.  Either 
the  North  conquers  the  South  and  re-establishes 
law,  freedom,  aud  the  integrity  of  our  country, 
or  the  South  conquers  the  North  by  arms,  or 
by  treason  at  home,  and  covers  our  portion  of  the 
country  with  disgrace  and  slavery. 

Let  us  not  shrink  from  facts  or  mince  the  truth, 
but  rather  plainly  present  to  our  minds  the  es- 
sential character  of  the  struggle  in  which  hun- 
dreds of  thousands,  that  ought  to  be  brothers, 
are  now  engaged.  What  has  brought  us  to  these 
grave  straits  ? 

Are  we  two  different  races,  as  the  new  ethnol- 
ogists of  the  South,  with  profound  knowledge  of 
history  and  of  their  own  skins,  names,  and  lan- 
guage, proclaim  ?  Have  they  produced  the  names 
which  Europe  mentions  when  American  literature 
is  spoken  of?  Have  they  advanced  science? 
Have  they  the  great  schools  of  the  age  ?  Do  they 
6peak  the  choice  idiom  of  the.  cultivated  man  ? 
Have  the  thinkers  aud  inventors  of  the  age  their 
homes  in  that  region  ?  Is  their  standard  of  com- 
fort exalted  above  that  of  ours?  What  has  this 
wondrous  race  produced?  what  new  idea  has  it 
added  to  the  great  stock  of  civilization?  It  has 
produced  cotton,  and  added  the  idea  that  slavery 
is  divine.     Does  this  establish  a  superior  race  ? 

There  is  no  fact  or  movement  of  greater  signi- 
ficance in  all  history  of  the  human  race,  than  the 
settlement  of  this  great  continent  by  European 
jieople  at  a  period  when,  in  their  portion 
of  the  globe,  great  nations  had  been  formed,  and 
the  national  polity  had  finally  become  the 
normal  type  of  government;  and  it  is  a  fact 
equally  pregnant  with  momentous  results  that 
Jhe  northern  portion  pf  this  hemisphere  came  to 


be  colonized  chiefly  by  men  who  brought  along 
with  them  the  seeds  of  self-government,  and  a 
living  common  law,  instinct  with  the  principles 
of  manly  self-dependence  and  civil  freedom. 

The  charters  under  which  they  settled,  and 
which  divided  the  American  territory  into- 
colonies,  were  of  little  more  importance  than  the 
vessels  and  their  names  in  which  the  settlers 
crossed  the  Atlantic  ;  nor  had  the  origin  of  these 
charters  a  deep  meaning,  nor  wa3  their  source 
always  pure.  The  people  in  this  country  al- 
ways felt  themselves  to  be  one  people,  and 
unitedly  they  proclaimed  and  achieved  their 
independence.  The  country  as  a  whole  was 
called  by  Washington  and  his  compeers  America, 
for  want  of  a  more  individual  name.  Still,  there 
was  no  outward  and  legal  bond  between  the 
colonies,  except  the  crown  of  England ;  and 
when  our  people  abjured  their  allegiance  to  that 
crown,  each  colony  stood  formally  for  itself.. 
The  Articles  of  Confederation  were  adopted,  by 
which  our  forefathers  attempted  to  establish  a 
confederacy,  uniting  all  that  felt  themselves  to- 
be  of  one  nation,  but  were  not  one  by  outward 
legal  form.  It  was  the  best  united  government 
our  forefathers  could  think  of,  or  of  which,  per-  . 
haps,  the  combination  of  circumstances  admitted. 
Each  colony  came  gradually  to  be  called  a  state, 
and  called  itself  sovereign,  although  none  ol 
them  had  ever  exercised  any  of  the  highest 
attributes  of  sovereignty  ;  nor  did  ever  after  the 
states  do  so. 

Whenever  political  societies   are  leagued   to- 
gether,  be  it  by  the  frail  bonds  of  a  pure  con- 
federacy, or  by  the  consciousness  of  the  peoph 
that   they   are    intrinsically     one    people,    anc 
form   one  nation,  without,  however,  a  positiv< 
national  government,  then  the  most  powerful  o 
these  ill-united  portions  needs  must  rule ;  and 
as  always  more  than  one  portion  wishes  to  b>  f 
the  leader,  intestine  struggles  ensue  in  all  sucl 
incoherent  governments.     It  has  been  so  in  anti 
quity ;  it  has  been  so  in  the  middle  ages  ;  it  ha 
been  so  and  is  so  in  modern  times.     Those  of  ou 
forefathers  who  later  became  the  framers  of  ou 
Constitution,  saw  this  approaching  evil,  and  the; 
observed  many   other  ills  which   had   alread; 
overtaken  the  confederacy.     Even  Washingtor 
the  strong  and  tenacious  patriot,  was  brought  t 
the  brink  of  despondency.     It  was  a  dark  perio 
in  our  history  ;  aud  it  was  then  that  our  father 
most  boldly,  yet  most  considerately,  performe 
the    greatest   act  that  our  annals  record— the 
engrafted  a  national,  complete,  and  represent) 
tive  government  on  our  halting  confederacy ; 
government  in    which   the  senate,  though    sti 
representing   the   states   as    states,  became   ni 
t'onalized  in  a  great  measure,  and  in  which  tl 
House   of   Representatives   became   exclusive! 
national.     Virginia,  which,  under  the  Articles 
Confederation,  was  approaching  the  leadersh: 
over  all  (in  the  actual  assumption  of  which  si 
would,  have  been  resisted  by  other  rapidly  gro; 
ing  states,    which  would  inevitably  have  led 


our  Peloponnesian  war) 
represented  according  to 
every  other  portion  of 
Virginia,    not   as   a  unit, 


—Virginia    was    no 
her  population,    HI 
the  country  ;    not 
but  by  a  number 


representatives  who  voted,  and  were  bound 
vote  individually,  according  to  their  conscien| 
and  best  light,  as  national  men.  The  dang 
of  internal  struggle  and   provincial    bittern* 


9 


had  passed,  and  our  country  now  fairly  en- 
tered as  an  equal  among  the  leading  nations  in 
the  couree  where  nations,  like  Olympic  chariot- 
horses,  draw  abreast  the  car  of  civilization.  We 
advanced  rapidly;  the  task  assigned  to  us  by 
Providence  was  performed  with  a  rapidity  which 
had  not  been  known  before ;  for  we  had  a  national 
government  commensurate  to  our  land  and  our 
destiny. 

But  while  thus  united  and  freed  from  pro- 
vincial retardation  and  entanglements,  a  new 
portent  appeared. 

Slavery,  which  had  been  planted  here  in  the 
colonial  times,  and  which  had  been  increased  in 
this  country  by  the  parent  government,  against 
the  urgent  protestations  of  the  colonists,  and 
especially  of  the  Virginians,  existed  in  all  the 
colonies  at  the  time  when  they  declared  them- 
selves independent.  It  was  felt  by  all  to  be  an 
evil,  which  must  be  dealt  with  as  best  it  might 
be,  and  the  gradual  extinction  of  which  must  be 
wisely  yet  surely  provided  for.  Even  Mr. 
Calhoun,  in  his  earlier  days,  called  slavery  a 
scaffolding  erected  to  rear  the  mansion  of  civili- 
zation, which  must  be  taken  down  when  the 
fabric  is  finished. 

This  institution  gave  way  gradually  as  civili- 
zation advanced.  It  has  done  so  in  all  periods 
of  history,  and  especially  .of  Christian  history. 
Slavery  melts  away  like  snow  before  the  rays  of 
rising  civilization.  The  South  envied  the  North 
for  getting  rid  of  slavery  so  easily,  and  often  ex- 
pressed her  envy.  But  a  combination  of 
untoward  circumstances  led  the  South  to  change 
her  mind.  First,  it  was  maintained  that  if 
slavery  is  an  evil,  it  was  their  affair,  and  no  one 
else  had  a  right  to  discuss  it  or  interfere  with  it ; 
then  it  came  to  be  maintained  that  it  was  no 
evil;  then  slavery  came  to  be  declared  an  im- 
portant national  element,  which  required  its  own 
distinct  representation  and  especial  protection ; 
then  it  was  said — we  feel  ashamed  to  mention 
it — that  slavery  is  a  divine  institution.  To  use 
the  words  of  the  great  South-Carolinian,  whose 
death  we  deeply  mourn — of  James  Louis  Petigru 
— they  placed,  like  the  templars,  Christ  and 
Baphomet  on  the  same  altar.  Yet  sti'l  another 
step  was  to  be  taken.  It  was  proclaimed  that 
slavery  is  a  necessary  element  of  a  new  and 
•glorious  civilization,  and  those  who  call  them- 
selves conservatives  plunged  recklessly  into  a 
new-fangled  theory  of  politics  and  civilization. 

Thus  slavery  came  to  group  again  the  diffe- 
rent portions  "of  our  country  outside  of,  and 
indeed  in  hostility  to,  the  national  govern- 
ment and  national  constitution.  The  struggle 
for  the  leadership  was  upon  us.  The  South 
declared  openly  that  it  must  rule;  we,  in 
the  meantime,  declaring  that  the  nation  must 
■rule,  and  if  an  issue  is  forced  upon  us,  between 
the  South  and  the  North,  then,  indeed,  the 
North  must  rule  and  shall  rule.  Tliis  is  the  war 
in  which  we  are  now  engaged — in  which,  at  the 
moment  this  is  read  to  you.Uhe  precious  blood  of 
our  sons,  and  brothers,  and  fathers,  is  flowing. 

Whenever  men  are  led,  in  the  downward 
course  of  error  and  passion,  ultimately  to  declare 
themselves,  with  immoral  courage,  in  favor  of 
a  thing  or  principle  which  centuries  and  thou- 
sands of  years  of  their  own  race  have  declared, 
by  a  united  voice,  an  evil  or  a  crime,  the  mischief 
.Joe3  not  stop  with  this  single  declaration.     It 


naturally,  and  by  a  well-established  law,  un- 
hinges the  whole  morality  of  the  man  ;  it  warps 
his  intellect  and  inflames  his  soul  with  bewilder- 
ing passions,with  defiance  to  the  simplest  truth  and 
plainest  fact,  and  with  vindictive  hatred  toward 
those  who  cannot  agree  with  him.  It  is  a  fearful 
thing  to  become  the  defiant  idolater  of  wrong. 
Slavery,  and  the  consequent  separation  from  the 
rest  of  men,  begot  pride  in  the  leading  men  of  the 
South — absurdly  even  pretending  to  be  of  a  differ- 
ent and  better  race.  Pride  begot  bitter  and 
venomous  hatrcl,  and  this  bitter  hatred,  coupled 
with  the  love  of  owning  men  as  things,  begot  at 
last  a  hatred  of  that  which  distinguishes  the  race 
to  which  we  belong  more  than  aught  else — the 
striving  for  and  love  of  liberty. 

There  is  no  room,  then,  for  pacifying  argu- 
ments with  such  men  in  arms  against  us,  against 
their  duty,  their  country,  their  very  civilization. 
All  that  remains  for  the  present  is  the  question, 
Who  shall  be  the  victor  ? 

It  is  for  all  these  reasons  which  have  been 
stated  that  we  pledge  ourselves  anew,  in  un- 
wavering loyalty,  to  stand  by  and  support  the 
government  in  all  its  efforts  to  suppress  the 
rebellion,  and  to  spare  no  endeavor  to  maintain, 
unimpaired,  the  national  unity,  both  in  principle 
and  territorial  boundary. 

We  will  support  the  government,  and  call  on  it 
with  a  united  voice  to  use  greater  and  greater 
energy,  as  the  contest  may  seem  to  draw  to  a 
close;  so  that  whatever  advantages  we  may  gain, 
we  may  pursue  them  with  increasing  efficiency, 
and  to  bring  every  one  in  the  military  or  civil 
service  that  may  be  slow  in  the  performance  of 
his  duty  to  a  quick  and  efficient  account. 

We  approve  of  the  Conscription  Act,  and  will 
give  our  loyal  aid  in  its  being  carried  out,  when- 
ever the  government  shall  consider  the  increase 
of  our  army  necessary  ;  and  we  believe  that  the 
energy  of  the  government  should  be  plainly 
shown  by  retaliatory  measures,  in  checking  the 
savage  brutalities  committed  by  the  enemy 
against' our  men  in  arms,  or  unarmed  citizens, 
when  they  fall  into  their  hands. 

We  declare  that  slavery,  the  poisonous  root  of 
this  war,  ought  to  be  compressed  within  its  nar- 
rowest feasible  limits,  with  a  view  to  its  speedy 
extinction. 

We  declare  that  this  is  no  question  of  politics, 
but  one  of  patriotism  ;  and  we  hold  every  one  to 
be  a  traitor  to  his  country  that  works  or  speaks 
in  favor  of  our  criminal  enemies,  directly  or  in- 
directly, whether  his  offence  be  such  that  the  law 
can  overtake  him  or  not. 

We  declare  our  inmost  abhorence  of  the  secret' 
societies  which  exist  among  us  in  favor  of  the  re- 
bellious enemy,  and  that  we  will  denounce  every 
participator  in  these  nefarious  societies,  whenever 
known  to  us.  We  believe  publicity  the  very  ba- 
sis of  liberty. 

We  pledge  our  fullest  support  of  the  govern- 
ment in  every  measure  which  it  shall  deem  fit  to 
adopt  against  unfriendly  and  mischievous  neutral- 
ity ;  and  we  call  upon  it,  as  citizens  that  have  the 
right  and  duty  to  call  for  protection  on  their  own 
government,  to  adopt  the  speediest  possible 
measure  to  that  important  end. 

We  loyally  support  our  government  in  its  dec- 
larations and  measures  against  all  and  every  at-. 
tempt  of  mediation,  and  armed  or  unarmed  inter- 
ference in  our  civil  war. 


10 


We  solemnly  declare  that  we  will  resist  every 
partition  of  any  portion  of  our  country  to  the 
last  extremity,  whether  this  partition  should  be 
brought  about  by  rebellious  or  treasonable  citi- 
zens  of  our  own,  or  by  foreign  powers,  in  the  way 
that  Poland  was  torn  to  pieces. 

We  pronounce  every  foreign  minister  accredited 
to  our  govern  in  cut.  \\  ho  tampers  with  our  enemies, 
and  holds  covert  intercourse  with  disloyal  men 
among  us,  as  failing  in  his  duty  toward  us  and 
toward  his  own  people,  and  we  await  with  atten- 
tion the  action  of  our  government  regard- 
ing the  recent  and  surprising  breach  of  this 
duty. 

And  we  call  upon  every  American,  be  he  such 
by  birth  or  choice,  to  join  the  loyal  movement  of 
these  National  Leagues,  which  is  naught  else  than 
to  join  and  follow  our  beckoning  flag,  and  to 
adopt  for  his  device  : 

OU  R   COUNTRY. 


LETTEE 

To  Messes.  John  Bright,  John  StuArt  Mill, 
Richard  Cobdex,  Newman  Hall,  E.  B.  Caibnes, 
Edwabi>  Dicey,  and  our  other  friends  in 
England. 

Adopted  at  the  Inaugural  Mass  Meeting  of  the 
Loyal  National  League,  on  the  Sumter  Anni- 
versary at  Union  Square,  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  April  Wth,  1863. 

Deeply  hated  and  loudly  maligned  by  the  ene- 
i  <•(  tree  institutions,  the  loyal  citizens  of  the 
United  States  of  America  turn  with  all  the  more 
pleasure  and  gratitude  to  their  European  friends, 
to  those  fearless  and  far-sighted  men  whom 
neither  the  scowl  of  the  threatening  tyrant,  nor 
the  zeal  of  their  fellow-countrymen  advising  in 
justice,  has  been  able  to  move  from  their  stead- 
fast principles,  To  yon  especially,  our  English 
advocates,  we  look  with  peculiar  pleasure,  on 
your  own  account  as  well  as  ours,  feeling  that 
your  support  is  not  less   honorable  and  advanta- 

•  us  to  yourselves  than  gratifying  and  encour 
aging  to  us.  For  we  do  not  r<  irard  ourselves  as 
suppliants  for  the  charity  of  your  favor  in  a  cat 
foreign  to  your  principles  and  interests,  hut  as 
brothers  appealing  to  brothers  who  are  waging, 
though  und.r  different  circumstances,  the  same 
battle  for  law,  liberty  and  truth. 

We,  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica, are  fighting  for  two  objects: 

First.  To  prove  that  we  are  a  nation  and  a 
government,  not  a  fortuitous  assemblage  of  petty 
states  loosely  connected  by  a  precarious  league  ; 
and  that  we  have  the  same  right  as  all  other  gov- 
ernments to  resist  and  suppress  insurrection  and 
conspiracy.  By  that  instinct  of  self-preservation 
which  is  proverbially  the  first  law  of  nature,  and 
which  holds  good  for  nations  as  well  as  for  indi- 
viduals, we  also  claim  to  be  guided. 

Secondly.  To  arrest  the  progress  of  a  barbariz- 
ing institution,  which,  originally  forced  upon  us 
by  the  mother  country,  and.  fostered  by  an  unfor- 
tunate combination  of  circumstances,  was  threat- 
ening to  overrule  the  whole  national  policy,  ex- 
ternal and  internal,  and  to  reduce  the  majority 
of  our  population  to  a  state  of  political  servitud.  ; 
an  institution  which  begins  by  imposing  ignorance 


on  the  l.laek,  and  finishes  by  encouraging  igno*- 
ranee  in  the  white,  as  the   educational  stati- 
of  the  Free  and  Slave  States  mosl  (dearly  .-how. 

Both  these  objects  have  been  scandalously  mis- 
represented in  your  country  by  men,  too,  who 
have  not  the  excuse  of  ignorance  to  offer  for 
their  errors. 

Persons  pretending  to  be  much  better  acquaint- 
ed with  our  Constitution  than  the  founders  of  it 
were,  have  formed  a  theory  of  our  government 
according  to  their  own  wishes.  They  have  de- 
nounced it  as  a  "  rope  of  sand,"  without  strength 
or  Cohesion,  and,  when  it  has  demonstrated  its 
vitality  and  capacity  to  assert  its  rights,  they  cry 
out  against  it  as  an  usurpation  and  a  tyranny, 
though  it  is  notorious  that  no  European  govern- 
ment in  a  similar  strait  has  ever  shrunk  from 
measures  at  least  as  stringent. 

Even  more  flagrant  are  the  bad  faith  and  soph- 
istry manifested  in  reference  to  the  second  branch 
of  our  struggle.  It  is  at  first  denied  that  slavery- 
had  anything  to  do  with  the  war;  and  the  enact- 
ment of  a  tariff  subsequently  to  the  breaking  out 
of  the  insurrection  was  actually  assigned  as  the 
ue  of  that  insurrection.  When  the  falsity  of 
this  statement  became  so  glaring  that  its  very 
authors  were  ashamed  to  urge  it  longer,  they 
seized  on  the  President's  Proclamation,  and  en- 
deavored to  attach  to  it  this  paradox:  "The 
1'rtsident  abolishes  slavery  where  he  cannot  reach 
it,  and  leaves  it  alone  where  he  can — thus  show- 
ing his  insincerity.'' 

Karely  in  the  annals  of  mankind  has  a  more 
insincere  attempt  been  made  to  fasten  insincerity 
upon  others.  The  founders  of  our  government 
had  been  most  careful  to  keep  slavery  out  of  the 
peaceful  jurisdiction  of  the  Constitution.  The 
President  had,  therefore,  no  right  to  meddle  with 
slavery  in  those  States  where  the  Constitution 
was  in  force.  It  is  only  in  those  where  it  had 
been  overturned  and  put  in  abeyance  by  the  con- 
spirators that  he  could  decree  emancipation  as  a 
war  measure. 

But  further — and    in    this    suppressio  perl  the 
injustice  of  our  calumniators  is  more  strikingly 
manifest — even  before  proclaiming  emancipation 
in    the    insurgent   States,  the    President  strongly 
recommended   emancipation,    with    Oovernment 
aid.  in  the  Border  States;  and  bills  for  carrying  out 
his  recommendation   in    Missouri   and   Maryland 
were  on  the  point  of  passing  the  last  Congress. 
They  were,  indeed,  defeated  at  the  last  moment 
by  factious  opposition  ;  but,   besides  this  proof  of 
intention,  has  nothing  actually  been  done?     Tie 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia, 
the  first  serfous  and  effective  treaty  with  Great 
Britain   to  pul  down  the  slave-trade,  the  recep- 
tion of  a   Ilaytian  minister  at   the  Capitol,  the 
recognition  of  black  men  as  citizens  of  the  Tinted 
States, — are  all  these   to  count  for  nothing  ?     Do 
they  afford   no   proofs  «f  the  Government's  sin- 
cerity <     Finally,    the   exclusion  of  slavery  from 
the  Territories  of  the.  Inil-d   S'ates,  which   was 
the  cardinal    principle   involved   in  the  Presiden- 
tial election,  has  it  not  been  literally  carried  out  f 
From    these    shameless    detractors    we  gladly 
turn  to  you  who  hive,  from  the  first,   perceiv<  1 
and  maintained    that  our  cause  is    the  cause  of 
freedom,  humanity  and  progress,  not  only  in  the 
Western  Hemisphere,  but  throughout  the   civil- 
ized world.     The  friends  of  tyranny,  1 1.  les 
of  the   people   and   of    liberal    institutions,    are 


11 


-everywhere  rejoicing  in  the  anticipation  of  our 
ruin,  both  from  their  abstract  hatred  of  the  prin- 
ciples which  we  represent,  and  from  the  practical 
assistance  which  our  overthrow  would  give  them 
in  their  designs  at  home.  That  our  cause  is  the 
cause  of  liberty  and  progress  will  be  made  clear 
by  examining  the  only  possible  solutions  of  the 
present  conflict.     These  are  three: 

First,  that  the  Government  will  succeed  by 
force  of  arms  in  re-establishing  its  authority  over 
those  portions  of  the  insurgent  States  which  it 
has  not  yet  been  able  to  reoccupy. 

Second,  that  through  the  treachery  or  faint- 
heartedness of  a  portion  of  the  northern  popula- 
tion, the  reverse  will  take  place;  the  South  will 
conquer  the  North  by  negotiation,  if  not  actually 
in  the  battle-field,  and  succeed  to  the  control  of 
■the  National  Government,  retaining  the  free 
States,  or  a  portion  of  them,  as  subject  depend- 
encies. 

Third,  that  the  so-called  Confederate  States 
will  succeed  in  establishing  a  separate  govern- 
ment without  making  further  conquests  from  the 
Union  or  acquiring  control  over  it. 

These,  we  repeat  it,  are  the  only  three  solu- 
tions possible;  for  that  on  which  our  foreign  ene- 
mies are  accustomed  to  dwell  with  malignant 
complacency,  the  comminution  of  our  country 
into  a  multiplicity  of  fragments,  would  be  but  a 
slower  and  less  direct  way  of  arriving  at  the 
second  result. 

Now,  what  would  be  the  respective  consequen- 
ces to  the  world  of  these  three  solutions? 

Throughout  its  whole  existence,  up  to  the  time  of 
the-present  civil  war,  the  United  States  govern- 
ment was  a  singularly  peaceful  and  unmilitary 
one.  Its  army  was  smaller  than  that  of  a  second- 
rate  German  Duchy  ;  its  war  marine  as  small  as 
its  commercial  marine  was  large.  It  had  never 
pursued  an  aggressive  or  interfering  policy,  any 
attempts  in  that  direction  being  notoriously  and 
solely  the  work  of  that  very  gang  of  conspira- 
tors who  have  now  kindled  the  flames  of  civil 
war.  If  it  now  succeeds  in  subduing  the  insur- 
rection, it  will  naturally  continue  to  maintain 
only  such  land  forces  as  may  suffice  to  preserve 
tranquillity  within  its  borders,  and  such  squad- 
rons as  will  secure  it  from  the  fear  of  foreign  in- 
vasion. But  suppose  the  slaveholding  South  to 
obtain  the  mastery  over  all  this  vast  territory 
and  wield  the  resources  of  it.  In  the  first  place, 
no  man  of  ordinary  sense  and  information  doubts 
that  the  "  confederation  "  would  be  rapidly  con- 
solidated into  a  very  strong  government,  either 
an  autocratic  monarchy  or  an  oligarchy  ;  indeed, 
the  latter  may  be  said  to  exist  already.  The 
leaders  of  the  movement  have  themselves  repeat- 
edly acknowledged  this.  The  wasteful  and  ex- 
haustive nature  of  slave  cultivation  soon  pro- 
duces a  demand  for  fresh  soil ;  hence  such  a  com- 
munity is  necessarily  expansive.  Although  this 
expansive  tendency  was  sufficiently  manifest  to 
inspire  other  governments  and  nations  with  well 
founded  apprehension,  still  our  free  majority 
acted  as  a  constant  drasr  u.ani  it,  till  the  leading 
oligarchs,  impatient  of  the  restraint,  essayed  to 
rid  themselves  of  it  by  the  extremity  of  violence. 
Give  them  the  supremacy,  and  they  would  have 
strength  and  singleness  of  purpose  to  overrun 
any  of  their  neighbors  at  will.  The  combined 
resources  of  all  sections  would  soon  furnish  them  an 
•army  greater  than  that  of  France,  a  navy  supe- 


rior to  that  of  England.  Moreover,  war  would 
be  the  simplest  method  of  occupying  the  poor 
whites  at  the  South  and  the  dependent  whites  at 
the  North.  Thus  the  great  slaveholding  empire 
of  North  America  would  be  at  the  same  time 
more  inclined  to  and  more  capable  of  aggression 
and  conquest  than  any  other  nation  existing. 
We  are,  indeed,  aware  that  an  attempt  has  been 
made  to  convict  us  and  some  of  you  whom  we 
address  of  inconsistency  in  this  matter.  If,  it  is 
asked,  slave  cultivation  impoverishes  the  soil,  if 
the  presence  of  slavery  debases  the  non-slave- 
holding  white,  how  can  a  government  containing 
these  elements  of  weakness  be  strong  for  attack 
and  dangerous  to  its  neighbors?  But  there  is 
really  no  incompatibility  whatever  in  the  two 
things.  The  very  qualities  of  an  arbitrary  gov- 
ernment which  render  it  most  injurious  at  home 
are  often  those  which  render  it  most  formidable 
abroad.  Its  comparative  unfitness  for  foreign 
conquest  is  one  of  the  beauties  of  a  constitutional 
government.  Was  the  Empire  of  the  first  Na- 
poleon any  the  less  the  terror  of  Eui'ope  because 
it  oppressed  and  impoverished  France  ?  It  is  be- 
cause slavery  exhausts  the  old  soils  that  it  must 
conquer  new  ones ;  it  is  because  it  deprives  the 
masses  of  their  rights  that  it  must  keep  them 
busy  at  war. 

It  is  supposed,  however  (and  we  are  not  igno- 
rant that  our  friends.as  well  as  our  enemies  abroad 
are  to  be  found  taking  this  view  of  the  issue), 
that  a  boundary  line  might  be  adjusted  on  terms 
safe  and  honorable  to  the  North,  and  the  two  rival 
communities,  becoming  separate  nations,  might 
go  on  side  by  side,  counterpoising  each  other  af- 
ter the  fashion  of  that  most  expensive,  but,  per- 
haps necessary,  "  balance  of  power"  in  vogue  on 
your  side  of  the  Atlantic.  Suppose  such  an  al- 
most impossible  boundary  to  be  drawn:  this 
would  be  a  less  evil  to  humanity,  but  still  a 
great  one.  The  aggressive  tendencies  of  the 
slaveholding  power  under  an  "  independent," 
but  by  no  means  free,  government,  would  be  par- 
tially checked  by  the  proximity  of  a  Northern 
Democracy,  but  not  entirely  checked,  much  less 
eradicated.  There  would  be  the  same  necessity 
for  new  land,  and  the  same  difficulty  in  keeping 
the  poorer  class  of  whites  quiet.  There  would 
be  a  constant  tendency  to  war  in  one  or  the  oth- 
er direction.  If  the  Northern  Union  were  assailed, 
the  blockade  and  all  other  inconveniences  of  the 
present  war  would  be  at  once  renewed.  If  an- 
other attempt  were  made  to  carry  out  the  dream 
of  the  golden  circle,  by  invading  Mexico  or  the 
West  Indies,  whether  this  were  done  with  the 
connivance  or  against  the  consent  of  any  Conti- 
nental powers,  would  it  be  for  the  interest  of 
England,  of  freedom,  or  of  humanity  ?  Surely 
not. 

And  now,  what  do  we  expect  of  Eogland  ? 
What  have  we  a  right  to  expect  of  England  ?  for 
here  again  we  are  accused  of  inconsistency  in 
repelling  mediation  and,  at  the  same  time,  invit- 
ing aid.  We  want  that  moral  intervention 
which  was  so  efficacious  in  the  case  of  Italy. 
We  ask  that  England,  who  has  for  long  years 
professed  her  attachment  to  law  and  liberty, 
should  not  look  with  favor  on  the  attempt  to  es- 
tablish an  insurgent  confederacy  upon  the  two 
corner  stones  of  secession  (which  is  but  another 
name  for  lawlessness)  and  slavery.  We  believe 
that,  had  the  governments  of  western  Europe  de- 


12 


blared  from  the  first,  officially  or  semi-officially, 
their  unwillingness  to  see  the  success  of  such  an 
attempt  at  government — presided  over  too  by 
the  inventor  and  founder  of  repudiation — and 
had  the  majority  of  the  press  and  the  influential 
classes  followed  in  the  same  path,  the  insur- 
rection would  have  died  out  by  this  time;  for 
nothing  has  sustained  it  so  much  as  the  indirect 
aid  received  from  Europe  and  the  constant  hope 
of  greater  and  more  direct  assistance.  We  me 
sure  that  ordinary  care  and  comity  would  have 
prevented  the  fitting  out  of  privateers  from  jour 
ports  to  prey  on  our  commerce. 

In  every  free  country  there  must  he  differences, 
and  great  differences,  of  opinion ;  but  some, 
at  least,  of  the  acts  alluded  to  lie  completely  be- 
yond that  domain.  Whether  our  Union  can  be 
restored  in  its  integrity,  may  for  you  be  matter 
of  opinion.  Aiding  the  insurgents  against  the 
government  is,  for  every  one  who  does  it,  a  mat- 
ter of  will. 

You  English  are  proud  of  your  reputation  as  a 
law-abiding  people ;  can  you  encourage  the 
most  unprovoked  and  unjustifiable  rebellion  that 
the  world  has  ever  witnessed?  You  wish  to  ele- 
vate the  very  lowest  class  of  workmen  ;  can  you 
patronize  the  system  which  reduces  them  to  the 
legal  status  of  the  brute?  You  wish  to  educate 
the  classes  next  in  the  scale;  can  you  sympathize 
with  the  system  which  prefers  to  keep  them  in 
ignorance?  Your  aristocracy  claim  to  be  learned, 
refined  and  humane;  does  the  magic  of  a  name  so 
blind  them  that  they  would  gladly  see  a  whole 
continent  delivered  over  to  the  lusts  of  an  oli- 
garchy, however  illiterate,  violent  and  sanguin- 
ary, so  that  it  but  be  an  oligarchy  and  not  a 
democracy  ? 

Trusting  that  the  good  sense  and  virtue  of  the 
English  nation,  aided  by  such  advisers  as  you, 
will  soon  answer  these  questions  in  the  nega- 
tive, we  remain,  with  renewed  thanks  and  sympa- 
thy, your  friends  and  associates  in  the  cause  of 
liberty  and  truth. 


LETTEE 
To  Count  Agenor  Gasparin,  Prof.  Edouard  La- 

boulaye,  augustin  cochin,  and  other  friends 

of  America  in  France. 
Adopted  at  the  Meeting   of  the  Loyal  National 

league    at   the   Sumter    Anniversary    at    the 

great  Mast  Meeting  in  Union  Square,  New  York, 

on  the  llth  of  April,  1863. 

Gentlemen. — The  Loyal  National  League  in 
the  city  of  New  York,  an  organization  having 
its  ramifications  throughout  all  the  loyal  States, 
and  bound  together  by  the  simple  pledge  "  to 
maintain  unimpaired  the  national  unity,  both  in 
idea  and  territorial  boundary,"  have  charged  us 
with  the  grateful  duty,  in  their  name,  to  thank 
you  for  your  disinterested  and  distinguished 
services,  in  behalf  of  the  American  People  and 
Union,  in  France. 

Amidst  the  general  misapprehension  and  be- 
wilderment of  the  public  opinion  of  Europe,  you 
have  clearly  understood  and  appreciated  the 
nature  of  the  struggle  in  which  the  People  and 
Government  of  the  United  States  are  in- 
volved ;    and   your    pertinent     and    impressive 


words  have  traversed  the  ocean  and  have- 
inspired  us  with  renewed  hope  and  courage.  In 
the  heart  of  the  American  people,  by  the  side  of 
Washington,  stands  enshrined  for  cv.r  that 
ancient  form  of  French  sympathy,  generosity  and 
valor,  the  Marquis  de  LaFayette,  lie  and  his 
companions,  who  stood  by  our  fathers  in  their 
great  struggle  against  arbitrary  power,  in  the 
popular  imagination  have  always  represented 
Fiance.  Is  it  strange,  then,  that  their  children, 
treacherously  assailed  in  the  very  citadel  of  their 
national  life  by  a  far  more  pernicious  and  des- 
potic power,  should  listen  with  reluctant  ear  to 
the  voices  that  would  persuade  them  that  France 
had  lost  the  clew  of  her  own  great  career,  and, 
repudiating  the  traditions  of  her  own  glory,  con- 
spired with  such  a  power  to  overthrow  freedom, 
the  rights  of  human  nature  and  Christian  civili- 
zation in  America  ?  The  messages  you  have  sent 
us  have  cleared  away  the  doubts  that  weighed 
upon  our  hearts,  and  prove  to  us  that,  notwith- 
standing the  persistent  efforts  of  the  advocates  of 
the  slave  power  to  conceal  its  deformities  and  to 
misrepresent  the  true  issues  involved  in  its 
attack  upon  American  nationality,  the  en- 
lightened and  liberal  mind  of  France  penetrates 
the  whole  mass  of  subterfuges,  and  sees  clearly 
on  which  side  lies  truth  and  justice. 

We  esteem  so  much  the  more  highly  your  en- 
lightened and  just  appreciation  of  the  cause  for 
which  we  contend,  inasmuch  as  we  cannot  shut 
our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  many  things  in  the 
manner  of  conducting  it  must  seem  anomalous 
to  an  European  observer,  unacqainted  with  the 
more  intimate  circumstances  and  piinciple3 
peculiar  to  our  American  system  and  life. 

The  supreme  necessity  of  a  government  found- 
ed in  the  will  of  the  people  is,  to  hold  their 
public  servants  to  the  most  exact  and  inexorable 
obedience  to  that  will,  as  expressed  in  the 
written  constitution — for  that  is  the  fundamental 
law.  To  permit  any  assumption  of  power  on 
the  part  of  any  one  or  all  of  these  servants, 
under  the  pressure  of  any  exigency,  would  be  to 
open  the  door  to  endless  ambitions,  and  to  incur 
the  hazards  of  the  most  fatal  -consequences. 
Doubtless  the  founders  of  our  national  system 
of  government  intended,  as  far  as  possible,  to 
ignore  the  whole  subject  of  slavery,  to  leave  its 
interests  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  authorities 
of  the  several  States  in  which  it  already  existed,, 
and  to  keep  them  wholly  without  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  national  constitution.  For  the  sake  of 
union,  they  found  it  necessary  to  recognize  it  as 
an  existing,  but,  as  they  believed,  temporary/ac<r 
but  never  as  a  right;  and  so,  from  the  period  of 
the  adoption  of  the  national  constitution,  the 
idea  of  the  complete  independence  of  slavery  of 
the  national, government  had  been  inculcated 
and  strengthened.  Us  masters  called  it  an  tn- 
stitution,  to  pijt  it  upon  a  level  with  the  funda- 
mental law — the  constitution  itself.  They 
moreover,  at  an  early  day,  possessed  themselves 
of  its  supreme  judicial  powers,  and  had  thus  in 
their  own  hands  its"  interpretation.  They  pro- 
ceeded to  wrest  its  meaning  to  their  own 
purposes,  and  to  make  of  it,  an  instrument  for 
the  perpetual  maintenance  of  human  bondage, 
instead  of  giving  to  it  the  true  sense  of  its 
framers — a  charter  of  liberty  for  all  men.  By 
allying  themselves  with  a  prevalent  democracy 
at  the  North,  they  were  able  to  instill  and  estab- 


13 


lish  these  interpretations,  not  only  in  the  popu- 
lar mind  of  the  'whole  country,  but  in  much  of 
the  legislation  of  the  national  government. 
And  if,  with  all  this,  you  will  b°ar  in  mind 
that  the  constitution,  to  the  American  citizen, 
stands  in  the  place  of  the  person  of  the  sove- 
reign in  the  monarchical  systems  of  Europe; 
that  to  it  he  owes  paramount  allegiance  ;  that  it 
is  the  supreme  object  of  his  loyalty,  you  will  be 
the  better  able  to  understand  the  apparent 
hesitancy  of  the  national  government  to  strike 
at  the  existence  of  slavery,  even  in  resistance  of 
its  own  blow  at  the  nation's  life. 

To  destroy  slavery,  the  acknowledged  cause  of 
the  war,  and  at  the  same  time  to  preserve  intact 
the  wise  inhibitions  of  the  constitution,  accord- 
ing to  the  settled  construction  of  that  instru- 
ment, has  been  from  the  beginning  a  question  of 
no  little  practical  difficulty  to  .the  national  ad- 
ministration. To  carry  on  the  war,  it  must  have 
the  hearty  support  of  the  country.  To  be  sure 
of  this  support,  it  must  not  outrun  preconceived 
public  opinion.  To  enlighten  and  correct  public 
opinion,  time  is  necessary.  Let  us  assure  you 
that  your  own  generous  efforts  to  enlighten  the 
public  opinion  of  Europe  have  effected  much  to 
the  same  end  here,  and  that  the  whole  loyal 
country  is  fast  coming  up  to  the  just  and  only 
solution  of  the  great  question  in  issue.  The 
President's  recent  proclamation  of  emancipation 
is  a  proof;  for  while  it  by  no  means  completes  the 
work,  even  in  idea,  it  is,  at  least,  a  great  step  in 
the  right  direction.  Issued  under  his  constitu- 
tional powers  as  commander  in-chief  of  the  army 
and  navy  of  the  United  States,  and  as  a  measure 
of  war,  its  direct  operation  must  of  necessity  be 
restricted  to  such  districts  of  country  as  still 
remain  in  unsubdued  rebellion ;  but,  indirectly, 
and  as  a  ground  of  right  of  freedom  for  the  slave, 
its  scope  is  much  wider  and  more  important.  In 
any  view  of  it,  it  surely  deserves  the  hearty  sym- 
pathy and  support  of  all  the  enlightened  lovers 
of  liberty  and  progress,  rather  than  such  captious 
and  unworthy  criticisms  as  that  of  the  English 
minister.  Lord  John  Russell  is  the  minister  of  a 
constitutional  government ;  he  cannot  be  ignorant 
what  rights  of  war  a  commander-in-chief  may 
exercise  ;  he  knows  that  the  lights  of  war  are 
restricted  to  the  theatre  of  the  war,  and  that, 
under  every  constitutional  government,  power,  in 
theory  at  least,  is  restricted  to  the  exercise  of 
rights. 

Another  ground  of  popular  misapprehension, 
on  your  side  of  the  Atlantic,  as  to  the  true  issues 
at  stake  in  our  struggle,  may  very  naturally  have 
arisen  out  of  the  fact  that  in  all  the  revolutionary 
movements  of  modern  Europe  the  insurgents 
have  usually  represented  liberty,  nationality 
and  progress,  while  thegovernmentsrepresented, 
if  not  arbitrary  power,  at  best  authority  only, 
and  the  status  quo.  Here,  on  the  contrary, 
exactly  the  reverse  is  true.  Here  the  insurrec- 
tion represents  a  power  founded  upon  the  utter 
annihilation  of  the  commonest  human  rights — a 
boasted  repudiation  of  all  ideas  of  liberty  and 
progress;  while  the  national  government, 
founded  upon  the  principles  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  of  1776,  "  the  self-evident  truths 
that  all  men  are  created  equal,  and  are  endowed 
by  their  Creator  with  the  inalienable  rights  to 
life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,"  wars 
only  to  preserve  the  institutions  in  which  these 


rights  are  embodied,  and  under  which  alone 
th^y  can  be  maintained  in  the  present  exigency. 
But,  with  all  this,  it  is  not  difficult  to  see  how 
the  European  mercenaries  of  the  slave  power, 
skillfully  concealing  the  true  character  of  its 
atrocious  attempt  to  overthrow  free  government 
in  America,  and  stealing  the  battle-cry  of  the 
oppressed  nationalities  of  the  Old  World — 
'National  Independence" — should  have  been 
able  to  bewilder  the  public  opinion,  and  draw  t» 
its  shameless  cause  much  of  the  sympathy  of  the 
popular  heart,  of  Europe,  even  of  France. 

Assuming,  for  the  occasion,  the  part  of  the  op- 
pressed, these  frenzied  devastators  of  a  whole 
race  of  men  have  not  hesitated  to  charge  the 
loyal  people  of  the  North  and  the  National  Gov- 
ernment with  fighting  only  for  dominion.  "Yon 
tight,"  say  they,  "  not  for  freedom,  not  for  the 
emancipation  of  the  enslaved,  but  only  for  the 
maintenance  of  power."  The  slightest  examina- 
tion will  prove  "how  unfounded  and  nefarious  is 
this  charge.  The  whole  controversy  in  the  elec- 
tion of  Lincoln  turned  upon  the  question  of  the 
limitation  of  the  area  of  slavery.  The  Republi- 
can party,  who  made  him  their  candidate  and 
carried  him  into  office,  planted  themselves  upon 
the  simple  ground  of  limiting  slavery  to  the 
lines  within  which  it  already  existed.  This  at- 
tempt to  resist  the  arrogant  demand  of  the  slave 
masters  to  appropriate  to  their  own  use  the 
whole  of  the  still  unoccupied  domain  of  the  na- 
tion, constituted  the  whole  offense  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States  iu  that  election.  They  sim- 
ply said  to  them,  The  national  domain  and  the 
national  government  belong  to  us,  as  well  as  you. 
Liberty  is  our  heritage,  and  henceforth  we  mean 
that  it  shall  have  its  rights  in  both  government 
and  domain. 

No  other  ground  of  offense  than  this  had  the 
slave  power  for  tearing  asunder  our  national 
unity,  no  other  excuse  for  the  unparalleled  crime 
of  beginning  the  present  war  to  destroy  the  pa- 
tional  life.  These  facts  are  patent  to  the  whole 
world.  Who,  then,  is  it  that  is  fighting  for  do- 
minion? 

We  do  not  mean  to  6ay  that  the  diabolical 
exigencies  of  slavery  do  not  necessitate  the  illim 
itable  appropriation  of  territory  and  the  unre- 
strained exercise  of  dominion  which  is  demanded 
for  it.  Doubtless,  like  every  other  system  of  au- 
thority founded  in  mere  power  without  right, 
slavery  requires  that  its  masters  should  be  mas- 
ters also  of  the  law-making  power  of  the  gov- 
ernment under  which  it  exists. 

Let  the  friends  of  the  slave  power  in  Europe 
have  the  benefit,  of  the  admission  that  the  exi- 
gencies of  a  slave  societ}7  demand  for  its  main 
tenance  universal  dominion,  and  the  ultimate  in- 
vasion of  all  the  territories  that  may,  at  any  giv- 
en period,  lie  adjacent  to  its  boundaries.  Thence, 
not  only  all  the  territories  of  the  Union,  but 
when  these  should  be  absorbed,  all  Jlexieo  and 
the  South  American  States.  Its  inevitable  in 
stincts  have  already  made  themselves  manifestia 
the  variou3  predatory  expeditions  that,  from 
time  to  time,  have  been  set  on  foot  at  the  South. 
These  were  but  a  kind  of  offshoot  of  its  exuber- 
ant and  monstrous  vitality ;  but  they  serve  to 
illustrate  the  nature  of  the  slave  power. 

In  stripping  from  it  the  veil  of  sophistries  with 
which  it  has  sought  to  conceal  its  enormities, 
you  have  not  only  rendered  a  great  service  to 


;  r 


Wr  natioi  al  cause,  but  to  the  cause  of  public 

1'ustice  and  Christian  civilization  everywhere. 
''or  the  cause  of  the  Union  is  the  cause  of  human- 
ity, unless  it  is  to  he  taken  for  granted  that  the 
public  morality  of  Christendom  requires  thai  the 
United  Mutes  should  abdicate  the  character  of  a 
nation  in  the  interests  of  the  power  which  as- 
sails it.  If  the  true  d  avacter  of  this  power 
could  be  clearl v  presented  to  bhl  public  con- 
science of  France,  we  should  fearlessly  rest  our- 
selves upon  it-  verdict,  A.s  it  i>.  we  cannot 
much  blame  tba  genera]  misapprehension,  which 
lias  caused  it  not  orilj  to  be  tolerated,  but  to  be 
clothed  with  a  certain  popular  esteem,  as  well  ae 
with  certain  public  rights,  by  the  peoples  and 
authorities  of  Europe,  when  we  remember  that 

u   here,  in  the   more  immediate  arena   of 
•limes,  the  peculiar  character  of  American  s! 
ery,  lias  not   hitherto   been  thoroughly  appre- 
hended by  the  popular  mind. 

Simple  Slavery  is  not  a  modern  form  of  in- 
humanity. The  annals  of  our  race  ate  fall  of  the 
groans  of  the  enslaved.  But  hitherto  slavery 
has  founded  itself  upon  power — has  rested  its 
claim,  in  the  might  of  the  strongest — has  been 
content  to  enjoy  its  profits,  in  the  category  of 
things  without  remedy.  -In  no  age  of  human 
history,  until  now,  has  it  ever  been  attempted  to 
clothe  slavery  with  the  Saoebdness  of  Right. 
The  distinguished  infamy  belongs  to  the  founders 
of  the  southern  confederacy,  of  setting  up  a  gov 
ernment,  whose  corner  stone,  to  use  the  language 
of  one  of  the  most  notorious  of  them,  Alex.  H, 
phens,  is  "the  right  of  the  superior  race  to 
enslave  the  inferior."  "This  right,"  he  says, 
"settles  forever  the  agitating  question  of  Ameri- 
can Slavery,"  and  boastfully  declares  that  "  our 
new  government  is  the  fir-t  in  the  history  of  the 
world  based  upon  this  great  physical,  philosoph- 
ical and  moral  truth." 

The  announcement  is  a  sufficient  notice  to  all 
the  world.  The  establishment  of  the  Southern 
Confederacy  is  not  alone  the  setting  up  of  a  new 
power  upon  the  earth,  but  the  introduction  into 
the  public  law  of  the  civilized  world  of  a  nkw 
right  ;  and  into  the  family  of  nations  of  a  nkw 

FORM    OF     CIVILIZATION. 

It  is  in  this  aspect  of  our  struggle  that  it  be- 
comes of  the  deepest  interest  to  the  people  of 
France  and  to  all  men.  An  attempt  to  supplant 
the  laws  founded  by  the  Divine  Master  of  these 
Christian  centuries  by  a  new  code,  derived  from 
the  reeking  shambles  of  King  Dahomey,  is  an 
enterprise  in  .which  the  people  of  the* United 
States  are  not  alone  interested. 

Is  it  possible  that  the  idea  can  be  anywhere 
entertained  that  the  glory  of  France,  or  the 
permanent  well-being  of  her  people,  require  its 
successful  prosecution  on  this  continent?  Will 
8he  aid  in  the  overthrow  of  a  nationality,  found- 
ed upon  the  principles  of  her  own  great  revolu- 
tion, and  cemented  by  the  blood  of  her  noblest 
Bona,  for  the  sake  of  any  profits  to  be  derived 
from  the  meretricious  embrace  of  Bueh  an  ally? 
At  the  south  they  make  a  commerce  out  of  their 
own  blood  when  il  flows  under  a  colored  skin. 
That,  doubtless,  is  in  accordance  with  the  new 
confederate  code.  For  the  sake  of  national  recog- 
nition the  new  confederate  power  would  allow 
any  respeat able  nation  to  participate  in  all  the 
benefits  of  this  commerce  as  well  as  of  the  trade 


in  cotton.      We  cannot  be  persuaded  that  France 
will  he  the  first  to  take  advantage  of  the  offer. 

If  at  the  instant  of  the  Blave  master's  attempt 
to  force  the  new  right  into  the  public  code  of  the 
Christian  world,  the  governments  of  France  and 
England  had  promptly  refused  to  aeoepl  it — if 
they  had  simply  declared  that  no  State  founded 
upon  any  such  atrocious  right  should  ever  be  ad- 
mitted into  the  family  of  Christian  nations — the 
question  would  long  ago  have  been  settled. 
There  would  have  been  no  idle  and  starving 
spinners  ami  weavers  in  Lancashire,  no  unem- 
ployed and  famishing  workpeople  at  Rouen  and 
Mulhouse.  Even  now  these  governments  have  it 
in  their  power' to  say  tin-  word  that  shall  at  once 
put  an  end  to  the  pernicious  hopes  that  prolong 
our  disasters,  and  the  continually  more  and  more 
aggravated  sufferings  of  their  own  peoples. 

As  for  us,  we  know  now  that  the  issues  at  stake, 
in  the  war  which  we  wage,  belong  to  humanity  ; 
we  know,  also,  how  momentous  they  are,  and  that 
the  great  question  is  not  as  to  the  day  or  month 
or  year  in  which  peace  shall  be  declared,  but  as 
to  the  hour  in  which  the  impiout  right  organized 
by  the  slave  power  into  a  Confederacy  of  States 
shall  be  utterly  overthrown  and  extinguished. 
If  we  doubted  as  to  our  duty  in  such  a  crisis,  we 
should  turn  to  one  of  you  and  learn  that  "  a 
People  accustomed  to  liberty  should  risk  their 
last  man  and  their  la>t  dollar  to  keep  the  inherit- 
ance of  their  fathers'' — "  that  the  dismember- 
ment of  the  Union — the  rending  assunder  of  the 
country — would  be  degradation  without  remedy." 

We  would  by  no  mean--  speak  boastfully  of  the 
military  successes  of  the  armies  of  the  Union.  A 
singularly  peaceful  people,  like  those  of  the 
Northern  States,  do  not  learn  war  in  a  day  Be- 
sides, this  is  emphatically  a  war  of  ideas,  and 
they  take  time  to  put  on  their  armor  and  march. 
Still,  an  inspection  of  the  map  of  the  insurgent 
States  will  show  you  that  some  portion  of  every 
one  of  them  is  already  in  the  occupation  of  our 
military  forces.  Let  us  assure  you  that  the  pres- 
ent condition  of  these  forces,  both  physically  and 
morally,  never  was  as  good  as  at  this  hour,  nor 
their  future  success  so  well  assured.  At  the  same 
time  let  us  further  assure  you  that  the  resOUl 
of  the  people  of  the  loyal  States,  both  in  men  and 
money,  remain  unexhausted,  and  still  adequate, 
we  believe,  to  the  work  which  Providence  has 
committed  to  their  ban. Is. 

And  again  thanking  you  for  the  many  just  and 
inspiring  words  you  have  spoken,  in  behalf  of 
the  great  cause  for  which  we  tight,  let  us  express 
to  you  our  hope  and  our  belief  that  when  the  end 
of  our  battle  shall  come  neither  you  nor  we  shall 
be  made  ashamed  by  the  result, 

With  sentiments  of  the  highest  individual  es- 
teem, we  remain,  respectfully,  yours,  &C, 

♦ 

8TA\D  1V0.  ». 

Speeches  by  Got.  Morion  of  Intl..  Gen.  A.  J. 

Hamilton,  Jag.    »I .  Scovel. 

This  stand  was  erected  on  the  south-west  side  of 

the  Park,  and  was  decorated  with    banners  bearing 

the  following  inscriptions: 

"  Loyat  National  League." 
"  A  common  Union  to  maintain  the  power,  glory,  »nd  integ- 
rity of  the  Nation." 
"  No  compromise  with  traitors;    No  neutrals  in  war;   The 

Flag  of  our  Union  shall  float  over  Sumter." 

"  Loyal  National  League,  p'eiged  to  maintain  the  nationality;" 

"No  fire  in  the  rear." 


< 


*-,, 


•    «.    4.T.VUW*, 


15 


At  about  4 1  o'clock,  after  salutes  of  artillery  and 
martial  music,  the  meeting  -was  called  to  order  by 
R.  B.  Minturn,  esq.,  and  prayer  was  offered  by 
the  Rev.  J.  T.  Duryea. 

Mr.  James  A.  Roosevelt  read  the  call  for  the 
meeting  and  the  list  of  Vice-Presidents   and  Secreta- 


ries. 


Mr.  Isaac  H.  Bailey  was  called  upon  to  read  the 
Address,  but  would  not  detain  the  meeting  by  read- 
ing it,  on  account  of  its  length,  saying  that  it  was  in 
accordance  with  the  spirit  which  had  called  this 
meeting  together;  that  it  would  be  published  by  the 
j  ress,  and  that  the  time  would  be  fully  occupied  by 
able  and  interesting  speakers. 

The  resolutions  were  read  by  John  Jay,  jr.,  and 
were  adopted  by  acclamation. 

The  Chairman  introduced  to  the  meeting  Robert 
Cummings,  14  years  of  age,  cabin  boy  on  board  the 
Harriet  Lane,  and  one  of  the  few  survivors  of  her 
last  eisgagement.  He  was  greeted  *  ith  loud  ap- 
plause, and  modestly  bowing,  retired. 
SPEECH  OF  GOV.  O.  P.  MORTON  OF  INDIANA. 
Gov.  Morton  of  Indiana  was  introduced  by  the 
President,  and  said: 

Mr.  President  and  Fellow-Citizens:  As  you 
have  learned  by  the  call,  this  meeting  is  assembled 
for  the  purpose  of  commemorating  the   attack  upon 
Fort  Sumter.    The  inquiry  may   present  itself   to 
your  minds,  For  what  are  we  commemorating  the 
attack  upon  Fort  Sumter?     Before  that  time  the 
American  people  had  been  paralyzed  by  divisions 
into  parties.   The  organization  throughout  the  South- 
ern States  of  a  powerful  Rebel  army,  the  seizure  of 
forts,  dockyards,   arsenals,  mints,  ships  of  war,   and 
every  species  of  public  property,  had  proved   una- 
vailing to  arouse  the  nation,  which  wa*,  like  a  man 
with  a  dreadful  nightmare,  struggling  to  awake,  but 
yet  unable  to  do  eo.    But  when  the  echo  of  the  first 
gun  was  heard  in  the  night,  coming  like  an  earth- 
quake, the  nation  arose  from  its  bed,  and  every  man 
rushed  into  the  open  air  to  inquire    what  was  the 
cause  of  the  alarm,  ready  to  go  to  the  rescue  if  nec- 
essary.   The  firing  upon   Fort  Sumter  was  an  evil 
hour  for  the  Rebellion;  for  it  had  the  eflect,  for  the 
time,  to  close  up  the  ranks  among  the  people,  to  heal 
up  the  dissensions,  and  to  bring  us  together  as   with 
a  mighty  compression.    The  aitack  upon   Fort  Sn ni- 
ter had  its  effect  to  unite  the  American  people.    May 
its  speedy  recapture  and  restoration  again   draw  us 
together  by  the  strong  bonds  of  patriotic  fraternity. 
[Applause.]     Time  passed  on,  and  the  patriotism  and 
Belt-sacrificing  devotion  of  many  of  our  people,  stim- 
ulated    by     the     great     Union     meetings     after 
the    fall    of    Sumter,    wore    out;    and    the    dem- 
agogues    who      had     been     driven      into      their 
kennels    by    the    universal    outburst    of    patriot- 
ism    came' forth    and     began    to  do  the    devilish 
work  of   attempting  to    produce   divisions  at   the 
North  so  as  to  paralyze  the  arm  of  the  Government. 
I  believe  that  we  shall  come   together  again.    I  t>e- 
heve  that  the  work  of  the  demagogues  will  be  short- 
lived.   I  believe  that  the  good  sense  and  the  ardent 
affection  which  must  still  be  found  in  the  hearts  of 
an  overwhelming  majority  of  our  people,  will  again 
rallv  us  all  around  the  standard  of  our  country,  and 
uphold  it  until  it  shall  be  borne  in  triumph  to  final 
victory.    We  are  engaged  in  a  war,  the  most  terrible 
in  history,  a  civil  war.     The  first   question  which  I 
shall  ask  to-day,  and  it  may  seem  somewhat  element- 
ary to  you,  for  your  minds  are  doubtless  made   up 
upon  the  subject,  is  this:    What   brought  this  war 
upon  the  country  ?  who  are  its  authors  /    My  excuse 
for  asking  this  "question  and  answering  it,  is  baaed 
upon  the  fact  that  there  are  men  in  the  city  of  New- 
York,  and  all  over  the  loyal  North,  who  are  attempt- 


ing to  persuade  the  people  that  this  war  was  made 
by  Mr.  Lincoln's  Administration;  that  it  is  an  Aboli- 
tion war,  gotten  up  for  the  purpose  of  effecting  the 
emancipation  of  the  slaves,   and  to  promote  negro 
equality.    The  foundations  of  the  Rebellion  were 
laid  more  than  thirty  years  ago.    The  first  develop- 
ment of  it  was  in  the  nullification  movement  of  South 
Carolina  upon  the  pretense  of  a  tariff  which  they  de- 
clared to  be  unconstitutional  and  oppressive.    That 
Rebellion  was  promptly  suppressed  by  the  iron  will 
and  strong  hand  of  Gen.  Jackson.    And  the  predic- 
tion was  then  made  by  Gen.  Jackson  himself,  that 
the  next  development  wonld  be  upon  the  pretense  of 
the    Slavery   question.    From  teat   time  until  the 
breaking  out  of  this  Rebellion,   preparations  were 
constantly  made.    Men  of  the  Calhoun  school  of 
politics,  at  first  almost  wholly  confined  to  the  State 
of  South  Carolina,  but  afterward  spreading  through 
most  of  the  Southern  States,  and  afterward  extend- 
ing the  poison  even  into  the   Northern  States,  were 
laboring  to  lay  the  foundations  for  the  great  Rebel- 
lion with  which  we  are  now  struggling.    They  were 
willing  to  postpone  the  revolt  so  long  as  they  could 
control  the  Government  through  the  iostrumentality 
of  party.    But  when,   shortly  after  the  Administra- 
tion of  President  Buchanan  commenced,  it  became 
apparent  that  the  South  could  not  longer  control  toe 
Government  as   before,  preparations  were  systema- 
tically and  industriously  made  throughout  that  en- 
tire Administration  to  brine:  the  Rebellion  on.     It 
was  the  business  of  Mr.   Floyd,  from  tbe  very  first, 
so  to  dispose  of  all  the   arms  and   munitions  of  war 
that  when  tbe  hour  came  the   Rebels  could  place 
their  hands  upon   them;  and  we  know  they  did,  the 
greater  portion  of  them.     Mr.  Toucey,  the  Secretary 
of  the  Navy,  allowed  the  navy  to  become  dilapidated 
and  dismantled;  and  when  the  hour  for  action  came, 
it  was  dispersed  upon  all  the  oceans,  and  was  of  no 
value  to  us.     It  was  the  business  of  Mr.  Cobb,  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  to  impoverish  the  Treasury 
of  the  Union,  and  to  bring  dishonor  upon  its  credit. 
I  have  been  informed  since  1  have  been  in  this  city, 
of    a   fact     which    I   believe    is     not    generally 
knowD.     Mr.  Cobb  deliberately  made  arrangements 
to  allow  the  interest  on  the  public  debt  to  go  un- 
paid, so  that    tbe  coupons  should    be  protested  for 
non-payment,  in  order  to    affect  our  credit  abroad; 
and  this    dishonor  to  the    national    credit  was  only 
avoided    by  some  banks  of   the  City  of   New-York 
coming  forward   and  voluntarily  paying  the  interest 
upon  the    national    debt  to  preserve    tbe    national 
credit.    [Applause.]     Immediately  after  the  election 
of  Mr.  Lincoln,  South  Carolina  made    her  arrange- 
ments to  go  out  of  the  Union.    She  was  followed  by- 
one  State  after  another,  until  eight  or  nine  had  gone 
through  the  forms  of  Secession,  before  Mr.  Lincoln's 
inauguration.     At  the  time  of  his    inauguration  the 
Rebels  had  an  army  of  more  than  30,000  men  in  the 
field    trained,  armed,  and  ready  for  battle.     Up  to 
that  lime  we   had    done    nothing.    Mr.  Buchanan 
had  proclaimed  to  the  world  that    the  Government 
had  no    power  for    self-preservation.    He  had  de- 
clared that  the  Government  could  not  take  a  single 
military  step    to    preserve  its  life  from  the  robbers 
that  had    taken  it  by  the  throat.     Their  arrange- 
ments had  been  made  under  his  eye,  throughout  hie 
entire  Administration;    and  we  can  only  exonerate 
him  from  the  charge  of  a  knowledge  of    the  plane  of 
the  Reb^s  and  a  complicity  with   them,  by  making 
the  most  liberal  concessions  in   favor  of  his  imbe- 
cility.      [Laughter.]       Our   little    army  of    15,000 
men    had    been      scattered    to    the    lour    winds. 
There  were  not  200  men  together  in  any  one  place, 
except  the  army  of  Gen.  Twiggs  in  Texas,  wbicii 
■was  most    disgracefully  surrendered,  as  you  know 
it  was  intended  it   should  be  when  it  was  placed, 
there.     Preparations  were  made  for  the  reduction  of 
Fort  Sumter.    They  had   been  going  on  for  many 
weeks      They  were  made  deliberately,  openly,  un- 
der the  guns  of  that  fortress.    Those  guns  remained 
silent-  and  after  all  the  land  batteries  and  floating 
batteries  had  been  prepared  and  the  hour  was  ripe, 
then  the  fire  was  opened  upon  Sumter,  and  our  glo- 


10 


nous  flag  was  hauled  down,  and  onr  gallant  garrison 
was  compelled  to  surrender  to  the  enemy;  and  tbaa 
the  war  was  begun.  Need  I  ask  yon  the  question, 
then,  Who  made  the  war  7  It  was  made  by  the 
Rebels;  it  waa  made  by  the  South.  Oar  Govern- 
ment is  standing  on  the  defensive.  It  is  defending 
its  life;  it  is  defending  itself  against  the  dismember- 
ment of  its  territory;  it  is  struggling  and  fighting  to 
prevent  the  dissolution  of  the  Union.  It  is  not  a 
wht  which  the  Government  has  made,  but  a  war 
forced  upon  the  Government— a  war  which  the  Gov- 
ernment could  not  refuse  to  accept.  The  next  ques- 
tion, then,  for  our  consideration  is,  For  what  pur- 
pose did  the  South  make  this  war  ?  For  what  pur- 
pose was  this  .Rebellion  brought  upon  the  country 
with  all  its  train  of  disasters  ?  What  object  hail 
they  in  view  1  What  had  they  to  gain  by  it  ?  One 
party  to  this  war  contends  that  there  is  no  su  h 
thing  as  an  American  people,  an  American  natio  . 
that  we  are  but  an  aggregation  of  some  34petiv 
nationalities,  nnite J  together  in  a  partnership  of 
interest  and  convenience,  from  which  any  one  is 
at  liberty  to  withdraw  at  pleasure.  The  other  party 
to  this  war,  to  which  I  trust  we  all  belong,  coo- 
tends  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  an  American 
people,  that  there  is  a  national  unity  [applause] ; 
that  while  we  are  divided  into  States  lor  local  and 
domestic  government,  while  the  States  are  divided 
into  counties  each  having  a  government  of  its  own, 
aud  while  the  counties  are  again  divided  into  town- 
ships, each  having  a  township  government  of  its 
own,  yet  the  township  belongs  to  the  county,  the 
county  to  the  State,  and  the  St,ite  to  one  mighty  in- 
dissoluble nation.  [Applause.]  The  question  recurs, 
Why  did  the  South  mike  this  war,  and  seek  to  de- 
stroy this  Government  ?  You  will  be  told,  perhaps, 
by  such  a  man  as  Fernando  Wood  [groans]— I  beg 
your  pardou  for  alluding  to  a  subject  which  seems 
to  be  so  repulsive  to  your  feelings — but  we  are  told 
by  many  men,  North  and  South,  that  the  war  was 
forced  upon  the  South  to  protect  their  rights  under 
the  Constitution;  that  it  was  the  intention  of  Mr. 
Lincolu's  Administration  to  aggress  upon  those 
rights,  and  to  secure  those  constitutional  rights  she 
commenced  the  war  to  destroy  the  Constitution  it- 
self. The  first  official  declaration  which  the  Rebel 
Government  ever  made  to  the  Courts  of  Europe, 
given  by  their  first  embassador  to  Lord  John  Rus- 
sell, was  the  statement  that  the  war  was  not  made 
by  the  South  for  any  such  purpose;  that  the  South 
did  not  fear  that  the  Administration  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  would  trample  upon  their  constitu- 
tional rights.  I  need  then  give  no  further 
answer  to  this  pretense  upon  the  part  of 
Northern  sympathizers.  Then  what  was  the  war 
made  for  by  theui  ?  It  was  to  establish  a  Govern- 
ment in  which  the  institution  of  Slavery  should  not 
be  simply  recoguized  or  tolerated,  but  should  be  the 
great  paramount  of  controlling  interest,  in  which 
the  elaveholding  aristocracy  should  be  the  dominant 
or  the  governing  class.  Ihe  war  was  made  for  the 
purpose  of  overturning  and  uprooting  the  dem- 
ocratic principle  and  establishing  the  aristocratic 
principle.  Mr.  Stephens,  the  Vice-President  of  the 
Confederacy,  who  has  given  us  the  only  commentary 
upon  their  new  Constitution,  declares  iu  his  speech 
at  Milledgeville,  that  the  South  for  the  first  time  in 
the  history  of  the  world,  had  established  a  govern- 
ment whose  chief  corner-stone  was  the  institution 
of  Slavery.  It  was  a  matter  of  boasting  that  this 
had  occurred  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  civil- 
ization. [A  voice,  "  For  the  last  time,  too."]  It 
was  brought  forth  us  an  evidence  of  remarkable  pro- 
gress. He  boasted  that  they  had  overturned  th  s 
principles  upou  which  this  Government  had  been 
louuded;  that  they  had  established  a  Government 
upon  principles  directly  the  reverse  of  those  which 
were  set  forth  in  the  Declaration  of  independence, 
and  upon  wi.ic  .  ihifl  Government  was  established. 
The  great  question  present  iu  all  our  minds,  and  one 
which  Wo  aie  all  trying  to  answer  to  our- 
selves, is  tliB  great  question,  How  shall 
we     procure     peace?        How     shall     this    war 


be  ended  ?  It  is  said  that  there  are  thres  ways 
in  which  peace  can  be  attained.  The  first  is  by  con- 
ceding the  independence  of  the  Rebel  States,  conced- 
ing the  dissolution  of  tbe  Union,  conceding  the  dis- 
memberment of  our  territory.  [Voice*,  "  Never."] 
The  second  is  by  procuring  an  armistice,  then  calling 
a  National  Convention,  having  tbe  Rebel  States  rep- 
resented in  that  Convention,  and  then  propose  to 
amend  tbe  Constitution,  to  make  it  satisfactory  to 
the  Rebels,  and  reconstruct  the  Union  by  turning 
out  the  six  New- Kuigland  States.  [-'Never."]  The 
third  is  by  suppressing  the  Rebellion  and  conquering 
a  peace.  [Applause,  and  cries  of  "Turn's  the 
way.'  ]  Let  me  consider  very  briefly  the  merits  of 
these  different  modes  of  obtaining  peace. 
I.  If  you  obtain  peace  by  conceding  the  independ- 
ice  of  the  Rebel    States,  then  you  must  make  up 


ence  i 


-  UP 
your  nunds  to  give  uo  Kentucky,  Missouri,  Mary- 
land and  Delaware.  '  ["Never."]  We  have  been 
told  by  the  Rebels,  first  and  last,  that  they  never 
would  consent  to  a  peace,  except  upon  terms  giving 
to  them  all  the  Slave  States  represented  in  the  Rebel 
Congress.  Each  of  these  States  has  members  in  that 
body,  and  each  is  represented  by  a  star  upon  the 
rebel  flag.  If  you  would,  therefore,  obtain  peace 
by  abandoning  this  war,  and  concediug  their  inde- 
pendence, you  must  make  up  your  minds  to  give 
them  those  four  States.  If  you  do  that,  you  must 
also  give  them  up  your  National  Capitol,  which  is 
between  Maryland  and  Virginia,  both  of  which 
would  go  with  the  South.  That  is  the  first  conse- 
queuce.  I  do  not  say  it  would  be  the  worst,  by  any 
means,  for  we  could  build  a  new  capitol  upon  better 
ground,  and,  I  believe,  in  a  better  neighborhood. 
[Laughter]  The  next  consequence  to  flow  from 
peace  upon  those  terms,  is  tue  surrender  of  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi  River,  and  the  control 
of  that  stream,  thus  making  the  Nor. h- Western 
States  tributary  to  the  Rebel  Confederacy.  The 
next  consequence,  flowing  directly  from  that, 
wouli  be  to  raise  up  iu  all  the  North-West- 
ern  States,  a  powerful  party  in  favor  of  im- 
mediate annexation  to  the  Southern  Confederacy. 
They  would  feel  at  once  that  the  North- Western 
States,  lying  in  the  Mis.-issipp*  Valley  and  upon  the 
Ohio,  are  bouud  geographically,  commercially  and 
socially  with  the  people  of  the  South  aud  South- 
West;  and  they  would  never  consent  to  be  sepa- 
rated from  tbat  palitical  community  that  controls  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi  River.  This  party  would 
be  powerful  from  the  first.  It  could  no.  at  once 
carry  this  measure  of  annexation  to  the  Southern 
Confederacy,  and  would  then  resort  to  a  claim 
for  a  North- Western  Confederacy,  which  would 
be  but  a  preparatory  and  incipient  measure; 
becante  after  we  shall  have  "  cut  ourselves 
loose  from  the  Atlantic  States,  we  must  have 
an  outlet,  and  we  should  be  driven  to  throw 
ourselves  into  the  arms  of  the  Southern  Con- 
federacy to  enable  us  to  get  out  through  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  Acother  consequence  to  flow  Irom  peace 
upon  thess  terms  would  be  the  immediate  establish- 
ment of  a  Pacific  Republic.  California,  Oregon,  tbe 
Territory  of  Washington  and  all  these  Territories 
separated  from  the  Atlantic  States  by  the  range  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  would  at  once  set  up  for 
themselves,  aud  with  a  much  better  show  of  reason 
than  any  other  portion  of  the  Republic.  They  are 
upon  the  Pacific  slope.  Their  commerce  is  upon  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  Their  commerce  is  separated  from 
ouis  by  the  Rocky  Mountains.  And  they  would 
at  once  separate  from  us  and  set  up  a  grea'.  Pacific 
Republic  No  sensible  man  can  believe  that  if  the 
work  of  SJces«iou  and  disintegration  ehall  be  con- 
summated by  the  establishment  of  this  independence 
Of  the  present  Rebel  State?,  it  will  stop  there.  No, 
it  will  go  on  uutil  our  country,  once  powerful, 
prosperous  and  glorious,  will  have  become  an  utter 
wr»-ck  and  ruin. 

II.  Let  me  now  consider  briefly  this  second  mode 
of  obtaining  power,  by  procuring  an  armistice,  call- 
inga  National   Conveution,   amending  the  Constita- 


17 


tiou,  bo  as  to  make  it  satisfactory  to  the  Rebels,  and 
reconstructing  the  Union  by  turning  out  the  six 
New-England  States.  We  know  very  well  that  the 
Rebels  will  not  come  back  with  all  tbe  Free  States 
in  the  Uaioo.  It  would  still  be  in  the  minority  in 
the  Government,  as  tney  are  the  minority  in  the 
populations.  To  remove  this  difficulty,  it  is  pro- 
posed to  turn  New- England  out,  so  as  to  get  Sooth 
Carolina  and  the  other  Southern  States  in.  We 
would  then  live  in  a  Confederacy  of  twenty-eight 
States,  of  which  fifteen  would  be  Slave  States  and 
thirteen  would  be  Free  Stages.  That  would  give 
the  South  a  permanent  majority  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States;  for  they  would  take  care  never  again 
to  admit  another  Free  State  into  the  Union.  What 
then  would  be  our  condition  1  What  is  the  condi- 
tion of  Ireland  to  England,  of  Poland  to  Russia,  of 
Hungary  to  Austria  1  Such  would  be  oar  condition 
were  we  to  consent  to  a  new  Confederacy  con- 
structed upon  these  principles.  Why  is  New-En- 
gland to  be  turned  out  1  What  ia  her  offense  for 
which  she  is  to  be  expelled  from  the  Union  ?  It  is 
that  she  has  loved  Liberty  too  well  and  Slavery  too 
little.  [Applause.]  To  New-England  more  than  to 
all  other  parts  of  the  country  together,  do  we  owe 
this  Revolutionary  war,  and  all  the  mighty  train  of 
consequences  that  have  followed  it,  so  important  to 
ourselves  and  to  the  world.  Toe  Revolution  had  its 
origin  in  New-England,  and  New-England  gave 
more  soldiers  than  all  the  other  States  together,  for 
the  purpose  of  carrying  it  on  to  a  successful  issue. 
Massachusetts  gave  over  75.000  men,  while  South 
Carolina  gave  a  few  hundred  over  5,000.  Yet  the 
proposition  is  made  to  kick  Massachusetts  out,  to 
coax  South  Carolina  to  come  in.  We  are  to  turn 
out  loyal  States  in  order  to  induce  this  viper  to  re- 
turn to  nestle  in  our  bosom.  We  will  bring  the 
▼iper  back;  but  it  will  not  be  until  after  its  fangs  are 
extracted.  This  scheme  is  too  dishonorable  to  be 
pursued ;  and  yet  this  scheme  is  older  than  the  war. 
It  has  its  advocates  io  your  city  and  in  all  the 
Northern  States.  I  dismiss  it  as  a  subject  too  repug- 
nant to  our  feelings  to  be  longer  presented  to  you. 
III.  1  come  then  to  the  last  method  of  obtaining 
peace,  by  suppressing  the  Rebellion  and  conquering  a 
peace.  [Applause.]  In  the  first  place,  allow  me  to 
consider  very  briefly  the  progress  of  the  war.  What 
progress  have  we  made  1  I  know  we  are  an  im- 
patient people.  We  want  great  things  accomplished 
in  a  very  short  period.  We  have  failed  properly  to 
consider  the  magnitude  of  the  Rebellion  and  the  dif- 
ficulties of  the  uudertakiDg.  When  we  shall  have 
looked  over  the  ground  we  shall  find  that  our  pro- 
gress after  all  has  been  highly  satisfactory,  and  such 
as  to  give  us  the  most  confident  hopes  of  success  in 
the  future.  We  have  secured  Kentucky;  we  have 
secured  Missouri;  we  have  a  great  part  of  Arkansas; 
we  have  a  great  part  of  Louisiana ;  we  have  Mary- 
land; we  have  Delaware ;  we  have  a  considerable 
part  of  old  Virginia;  a  considerable  part  of  North 
Carolina,  and  a  large  part  of  Tennessee.  We  have 
at  this  time  more  than  half  the  Rebel  territory  and 
more  than  a  third  of  all  its  population.  The  right 
to  grumble  is  one  of  our  prerogatives.  We  are  a 
grumbling  people.  We  grumble  at  the  President. 
I  have  no  doubt  that  the  President  hast  committed 
faults.  He  has  been  placed  iu  a  more  trying  and  diffi- 
cult position  than  any  Executive  the  nation  ever  had. 
The  position  of  Gen.  Washington  was  never  more  diffi- 
cult or  more  important  than  that  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln. If  the  President  had  not  erred,  under  all  these 
trying  circumstances,  it  would  have  been  more  than 
human.  You  who  are  familiar  with  the  history  of 
our  Revolution  remember  what  bitter  opposition 
was  waged  against  Gen.  Washington,  almost 
throughout  tbe  war.  You  remember  the  complaints 
they  made  of  want  of  success,  cornphiiuts  of  his 
tardiness,  and  how  frcm  time  to  time  the  hearts  of 
the  people  sank  within  them.  But  still  they  hell 
on,  and  victory  fiaally  crowDed  our  arms  and  blessed 
our  cause.  Tuere  was  still  a  confidence  that  took 
fast  hold  of  the  hearts  of  the  people  at  that  time,  of 
the  integrity,  the  purity,  the   sound   judgment  of 


Gen.  Washington.  And  I  tell  you  to-day  that  the 
great  overshadowing  element  in  the  character  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  ia  his  unimpeachable  integrity. 
[Applause.]  It  is  the  confidence  tbat  this  nation 
has  that  he  is  an  honest  man,  that  he  loves  his  coun- 
try, and  tbat  whatever  he  does  he  intends  for  the 
welfare  of  his  country,  that  if  he  errs  it  ia  the  er- 
ror of  the  head  and  not  of  the  heart;  and  I  con- 
gratulate the  nation  that  in  this  great  hour  of  trial 
we  have  for  our  President  so  honest  and  up- 
right a  man  as  Abraham  Lincoln.  (Applause.] 
Tney  complain  of  the  Secretary  of  War.  It  is 
said  tbat  he  ia  not  tloing  his  part  well,  and  that 
many  of  the  misfortunes  of  the  war  are  to  be  attrib- 
utedto  him.  I  doubt  not  he,  too,  has  committed 
errors;  but  I  have  watched  hia  course  narrowly,  I 
have  had  much  to  do  with  him  in  the  administration 
of  military  affairs  in  Indiana,  and  I  take  great  pleas- 
ure in  bearing  testimony  to  hia  great  abilities,  and 
to  his  untiring  devotion  to  the  cause  in  which  he  ia 
engaged.  1  tell  you  there  is  nothing  half-haarted 
about  Edwin  Stanton.  His  whole  heart  is  in  the 
work,  and  he  is  devoting  himself  to  it  night  and  day. 
I  believe  history  will  yet  record  his  name  upon  one 
of  its  biightest  and  best  pages.  I  may  speak,  too, 
with  propriety,  of  Secretary  Chase.  He  received 
the  Treasury,  as  it  came  from  the  hands  of  Cobb, 
without  a  single  grain  in  it.  [Laughter.]  It  had 
been  impoverished  by  him  purposely  to  paralyze  the 
power  of  the  Government  to  resist  the  Rebellion. 
That  was  a  part  of  the  scheme,  a  part  of  tbe  policy 
which  characterized  the  whole  Administration  of 
Buchanan.  Mr.  Chase  has  resurrected  the  credit  of 
the  nation ;  and  this  fabric  of  the  national  credit 
never  stood  so  high  as  at  the  present  time.  It  is 
our  boast  that  we  have  carried  on  the  war  up  to 
this  time  without  heing  compelled  to  call  upon  Eu- 
rope to  furnish  a  single  dollar,  as  has  been  correctly 
stated  in  one  of  the  resolutions  you  have  just  adopt- 
ed; and  the  prospect  is  that  we  shall  cany  on  the 
"War  to  the  end,  and  crush  out  the  Rebellion  without 
calling  upon  Europe  to  lend  us  a  single  dollar  for 
that  purpose.  The  plan  of  obtaining  peace  that  I 
am  in  lavor  of,  is  by  crushing  out  the  Rebellion. 
How  are  we  to  do  that?  The  great  instrumentalities 
to  be  employed  are  the  army  and  the  navy.  They  are 
attempting  by  force  and  violence  to  destroy  thia  Gov- 
ernment,and  we  must  meet  them  by  force  and  violence. 
We  must  therefore  maintain  the  army  and  the 
navy  in  their  efficiency,  and  keep  them  in  operation. 
To  do  that  the  ranks  of  the  army  must  be  recruited. 
Those  who  are  not  in  favor  of  filling  up  the  army 
are  not  in  favor  of  crushing  the  Rebellion,  and  want 
the  Rebel  ion  to  succeed.  The  ranks  of  the  army 
must  be  recruited ;  and  how  shall  it  be  done  ?  You  can- 
not do  it  by  volunteering;  but  it  must  be  done  by 
the  Conscription  act.  It  is  a  matter  of  necessity 
that  that  act  should  be  enforced  everywhere.  Some 
of  you,  perhaps,  do  not  like  the  Conscription  act. 
It  is  an  odious  thing  at  the  best;  a  thing  which 
cannot  be  made  acceptable  to  the  people.  Yet  it 
should  be  understood  that  it  is  a  necessary  evil, 
and  should  be  accepted  as  such.  If  you  do  not 
like  the  Conscription  act,  let  me  aek  the  question, 
who  are  the  men  who  forced  the  conscription  upon 
the  na;ion  ?  They  are  the  men  who  have  enueavered 
to  make  the  war  odious.  They  are  the  men  who 
have  produced  the  state  of  public  opiuion  which 
has  entirely  cut  off  and  suspended  all  volunteering. 
They  are  the  men  who  have  encouraged  desertion 
from  the  army.  They  are  tbe  men  who  have  en- 
deavored to  depreciate  the  national  currency,  to 
discourage  the  army,  to  discourage  men  from  volun- 
teeiing.  These  are  the  men  who  have  brought  the 
Consciiptiou  act  upon  the  country ;  and  I  pray  you 
to  hold  them  responsible  for  it.  The  Government 
would  much  prefer  to  depend  upon  volunteer- 
ing to  the  end,  aa  it  had  iu  the  beginning;  but  as 
that  became  impos.-ible  in  Consequence  of  the 
opposition,  to  the  war,  it  became  necessary  to 
resort  at  last  to  the  Conscription  act.  Let 
me  here  advert_  briefly  to  waat  ia  called  the  $300 
section.    We  are 'told  that  that  is  the  rich  mans 


18 


section;  that  it  was  designed -to  exonerate  the  rich 
•  man,  and  to  embrace  the  poor  man.  I  want  to  cor- 
rect that.  I  disapproved  of  it,  bnt  it  was  for  a  very 
different  reason  from  those  demagogues  who  arc 
trying  to  excite  the  country  acainat  the  law.  I  pre- 
ferred that  it  should  allow  the  drafted  man  to  fur- 
nish a  substitute,  but  leave  to  him  the  expense  and 
the  trouble  of  getting  a  substitute.  But  why  was 
the  $300  clause  put  iu  ?  It  wan  put  in  for  the  ben- 
efit of  the  poor  man.  In  Indiana  we  had  a  little 
draft — a  draft  of  a  tew  thousand  men  for  nine 
months — and  the  price  of  substitutes  ran  up  from 
$■200  to  $800  or  $900  in  a  very  few  days  after  the 
draft  was  made.  Does  it  require  an  argument  to 
show  that  there  is  a  much  larger  number  of  poor 
men  in  New-York  who  can  procure  $3Q0,  than  of 
men  who  can  procure  a  substitute  when  they  have 
to  pay  $800  to  $1,000  for  him  ?  This  was  the  idea 
which  led  Congress  to  insert  the  $300  clause;  to 
protect  the  poor  man  from  the  result  which  expe- 
rience had  indicated,  that  the  price  of  substitutes 
would  run  up  even  to  $1,000,  putting  it  entirely  out 
of  the  power  of  a  man  of  moderate  means  to  pro- 
cure a  substitute  at  all.  Yet  this  clause  has  been 
perverted  and  falsely  held  up  before  the  people,  to 
make  the  Government  and  the  war  odious.  Gov. 
M.  proceeded  to  demonstrate  the  propriety  of  em- 
ploying negro  regiments,  of  the  Emancipation  Proc- 
lamation, and  of  "arbitrary  arrests."  He  conclud- 
ed by  showing  that  the  Rebellion  now  derives  its 
vitality  only  from  the  hope  of  dissension  in  the 
North,  and  bv  an  earnest  appeal  for  united  effort  to 
suppress  the  Rebellion  at  once  and  forever. 

Gen.  A.  J.  Hamilton  followed  in  an  able  and 
eloquent  address  which  was  listened  to  with  earnest 
attention  and  repeated  applause. 

Hon.  James  M.  Scovkl  of  the  New-Jersey  Le- 
gislature, one  of  the  seventeen  who  did  not  vote  for 
the  Peace  resolutions,  made  a  short  speech,  and 

The  Rev.  J.  T.  Duryea  concluded  with  a  few 
remarks;  the  audience  dispersing  in  the  gathering 
shades  of  twilight 


STA>D   TSO.   3. 

Npccchca    by    Gen.    Nigel,    Nchnyler  Colfax, 
and  Others. 

This  stand  was  decorated  with  the  American  colors, 
and  with  banners  bearing  the  inscriptions,  "One 
Flag,  One  Destiny,  One  Country;"'  "Sustain  our 
Brave  Soldiers."  A  band  of  musicians  were  in  at- 
tendance, and  commenced  the  proceedings  by  per- 
forming the  grand  march  from  "  Le  Prophete."  The 
meeting  was  called  to  order  by  Dr.  Francis  Lieber, 
who  upon  taking  the  chair  spoke  as  follows: 
SPEECH   OF   DR.    LIEBER. 

Fellow-Citizens:  Two  years  ago  the  hoom  of 
the  cannon  of  treason  reached  us  from  Charleston, 
and  now  this  very  day  we  expect  news  from  that 
very  port.  We  do  not  know  in  which  way  the  news 
will  turn — whether  it  will  bring  us  tidings  of  victory, 
or  whether  reverses  will  follow.  But,  fellow-citizens, 
I  venture  to  say  that  whether  we  are  vi  toiious  im- 
mediately and  'ake  that  traitorous  city,  or  whether 
.  every  iron-chid  vessel  is  sunk  to  the  bottom  there. 
we  will  remain  firm — we  will  carry  out  this  war  to 
the  very  last,  and  will  not  give  it  up  until  every  inch 
of  the  country  is  restored  to  the  Union.  [Cheer-. 
No  matter  what  turn  the  war  has  taken  during  the 
last  two  years — sometimes  we  were  victorious,  and 
sometimes  we  were  baffled — we  meet  attain  to-day  to 
profess  our  faith,  and  ugaiu  pledge  ourselves  not  to 
give  up  the  struggle — not  to  yield  one  inch — until 
the.  United  States  authority  is  restored,  until  we 
have  again  a  country  in  her  whole  integrity,  nntil 
we  can  say  again  that  we  are  American  citizens  from 


North  to  South,  and  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Paciric. 
[Loud  cheers.]  We  will  not  allow  pride,  or  ar- 
rogance, or  untruth  to  rule  over  us.  We  come  iiere 
to  pledge  ourselves  again.  I  believe  I  can  express 
far  letter  what  I  believe  we  have  met  here  for,  if  1 
read  to  you  a  portion  of  the  address  that  will  subse- 
quently he  read  to  you  in  its  entirety.  There  I  have 
expressed  on  paper  my  views  better'than  I  could  by 
word  of  mouth,  and  I  hope  and  trust  I  have  onlv  ex- 
pressed Union  feeling.  I  will  a-k  my  friend,'  Mr. 
Lossinp,  to  read  to  you  the  last  portion  of  the  ad- 
dress, aud  inquire  if  you  agree  with  us  or  not.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

Mr.  B.  J.  Lossing  said  he  felt  it  t.o  be  an  honor  to 
repeat  to  the  meeting  the  wise  words  contained  in 
the  address.  He  went  on  to  state  that  on  the  12th 
of  April,  1861,  the  news  of  the  attack  on  Fort  Sum- 
ter reached  New-Orleans,  where  he  was  then  stay 
ing.  That  forenoon,  while  sketching  upon  the  fields 
where  Jackson  won  bis  last  great  battle,  he  heard 
seven  discharges  of  cannon  in  New-Orleans,  and 
observed  to  his  companion  that  they  were  rejoicing 
in  New-Orleans  over  the  secession  of  the  seven  Con- 
federate States;  but  the  dischargts  sounded  to  him 
as  the  death  knell  of  the  oligarchy  of  the  country. 
From  that  day  to  this  he  believed  firmly  that  the 
whole  rebellion  was  nothing  more  than  an  instru- 
mentality in  the  hands  of  God  to  strengthen  and 
purify  the  nation.  [Applause.]  Mr.  L.  then  read 
from  the  address  as  requested. 

During  Mr.  Lossing's  remarks,  Gen.  Sigel  came 
upon  the  stand,  aud,  upon  being  recognized,  was 
greeted  with  enthusiastic  cheering. 

SPEECH  OF  GEN.    SIGEL. 

Loud  calls  were  made  for  Major-Gen.  Sigel,  who 
was  then  introduced.     He  spoke  as  follows: 

Citizens — [A  Voice — "  Sprechen  Dentch  ?"]  Yon 
will  have  somebody  that  will  give  you  something 
better  than  I  can  do  in  German.  Citizens  of  New- 
York,  I  greet  you.  I  am  glad  to  see  a  peaceful 
armj  around  me.  [Applause.]  I  am  glad  to  see  the 
people  of  New- York  so  faithful  to  their  Government, 
and  so  decided  in  maintaining  the  great  principles 
laid  down  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and 
in  the  Proclamation  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  [Great 
cheers.]  There  are  some,  my  friends,  who  say  that 
the  safety  of  this  country  will  depend  on  the  muscles 
of  m*n — on  the  strong  arms  of  the  Democracv. 
There  are  some  who  say  so  now.  I  answer  them,  in 
the  name  of  a  great  people,  that  the  rights  ol  men 
and  republican  principles  are  stronger  than  the 
muscles  of  a  few  thousand  demagogues  [Tremen- 
dous cheers  and  a  voice,  "That's  the  talk."]  Now, 
my  friends,  we  are  not  fighting  a  new  battle.  This 
tin  e  is  not  a  new  time  for  the  American  people.  It 
is  the  spirit  of  1776  [applause]  which  is  making  its 
tour  round  the  globe,  aud  which  is  revived  in  the 
hearts  of  the  American  people.  |  Renewed  ap- 
plause.] My  friends,  the  spirit  is  awakened  and 
we  have  to  maintain  it.  It  not  only  U  revived  in 
the  hearts  of  the  American  people,  but  it  has  per- 
meated France  and  Italy ;  it  has  revived  Germany 
audHurgary;  it  has  put  the  scythe  and  the  lance 
into  the  hands  of  Kosciusko.  MieroelaWBki  and  Lan- 
eriewicz,  and  it  even  has  fiigbtened  away  that  far- 
away grizzly  bear  of  Peteisburg.  And  Europe 
looks  upon  you  as  those  who  have  to  fight  the  battle. 
Tt'eysayyju  began  in  1776.  It  is  America  which 
hi  s  brought  forth  this  great  movement,  the  French 
Revolution  and  all  the  revolutions  following; 
and  it  is  in  this  country  where  the  last 
blow  must  be  strnck,  and  where  the 
last  battle  must  be  fought.  [Cheers.]  You  are  not 
ot  the  opinion  of  those  who  think  that  this  war  must 
be  ended  now  and  must  be  ended  very  quickly,  and 
I  am  not  of  that  opinion  either.  Europe  has  for 
thirty  years  fought  for  religious  independence  and 
for  the  freedom  of  conscience.  We,  the  American 
people,  have  to  fight  for  republicanism  and  for  the 
independence  of  nations.  [Cheers.]  We  mnst  not 
get  tired.     Your  ancestors  fought  seven  years  to  ac- 


19 


quire  their  independence,  and  I  think  that  tbe  princi- 
ples for  which  we  are  now  battling  and  fighting  are 
worth  that  we  at  least  spend  half  that  time  for  their 
maintenance.  [Applause.]  They  say  that  this  war 
is  led  on  slowly.  It  ia  true.  But  the  first  year,  you 
know  very  well,  was  spent  in  experimenting,  in 
illusions,  in  false  hopes;  the  second  year  was  hardly 
sufficient  to  gather  our  forces ;  and  the  third  year,  I 
think,  will  be  sufficient  to  draw  the  iron  baud  closely 
around  secessionism,  to  strangle  it.  [Cheers,  and  a 
voice — "Ten  thousand  men  for  Sigel."]  I  thank 
you  for  your  sympathies.  I  have  not  come  here  to 
engage  in  the  business  of  speech-making.  I  am  only 
here  on  an  errand,  and  I  hope  I  will  not  be  here 
very  long.  I  thank  you  for  your  sympathies,  and 
make  room  for  somebody  better. 

Gen.  Sigel  was  loudly  cheered  on  resuming  his 
seat. 

Dr.  Rudolph  Dulon  then  addressed  the  audience 
in  the  German  language,  and  his  speech,  which  was 
an  eloquent  appeal  in  behalf  of  the  National  cause, 
was  loudly  applauded. 

SPEECH  OF   THE   HON.    SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 
The  Hon.  Schuyler  Colfax  of  Indiana  was  intro- 
duced by  Gen.  Sigel  as  his  valued  friend  and  as  a 
"first-rate  man." 

Mr.  Colfax  said  that  every  man  who  spoke  in  the 
language  of  fatherland  from  Germany,  or  in  the  lan- 
guage of  his  own  mother  tODgue  was  his  friend  and 
brother.  There  were  others  speaking  for  our  noble 
Union  that  day  in  the  very  jaws  of  danger,  in  the 
port  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina.  [ADplause.l 
God  bless  those  noble  men  of  arms  who  have  gone 
forth  to  plant  our  banner  victoriously  on  the  place 
where  the  reptile  flag  of  disunion  first  was  raised ! 
[Cheers.  1  The  afternoon  of  this  April  day  to-day  iu 
Charleston  has  an  atmosphere  hanging  over  it  lurid 
with  shot  and  shell  and  flame.  [Renewed  applause.] 
There  waves  on  the  one  hand  the  Palmetto  flag  of 
treason,  which  seeks  to  divide  this  noble  country, 
the  heritage  of  our  fathers ;  and  above  you,  sons  and 
brothers — worth}'  sons  of  worthy  sires — floats  the 
banner  of  beauty,  of  glory,  that  never  yet  paled  in 
j  the  face  of  any  foe,  but  which  traitors  have  sought 

to  trample  in  the  dust.  [Applause  and  a  voice: 
"They  can't  do  it."]  My  friends,  in  the  hour  when 
our  country  comes  to  make  up  her  jewels,  these 
brave  men  will  be  remembered  in  our  heart  of 
hearts — those  men  who  went  forth  from  this  city, 
from  my  District  in  the  far  Western  State  of  Indi- 
ana, and  every  other  loyal  district  in  the  Union, 
some  in  the  freshness  of  life's  June  and  some  in 
the  full  maturity  of  life's  October,  to  give  their 
life,  if  need  be,  for  their  beloved  country — those  men 
whose  example  shall  live  as  Jong  as  nistory,  and 
whose  memory  shall  blossom  even  in  the  very  dust 
of  the  grave.  Their  names  shall  be  written  high 
upon  the  scroll  of  American  fame.  God  bless  them 
to-day  !  May  the  God  of  Battles  that  stood  by  our 
fathers  in  the  infancy  of  this  country,  and  out  of 
weakness  gave  them  Btrength  and  power,  stand  by 
our  noble  defenders  to-day.  [Applause.]  My  friends, 
I  want  you  to  remember  one  thing  more  about  that 
gallan'  army.  The  men  who  are  under  the  folds  of 
the  American  flag  quarreled  in  the  past,  as  you  have, 
in  reg.rd  to  transitory  issues.  They  quarreled  at 
the  primary  meetings,  at  the  polls,  everywhere 
where  men  could  honestly  differ  in  the  exercise  of  a 
freeman's  privilege,  but  when  their  country  was  in 
danger,  when  the  issues  of  national  life  and  death 
hung  trembling  in  the  balance,  they  threw  away 
from  them  all  these  petty  differences,  and  Btruck 
hands  together  as  noble  patriots  under  our  couutry'a 
flag.  Why  cannot  we  imitate  their  noble  example 
here  at  home,  for  to*day  the  question  is  not  the 
minor  issues  of  the  past,  which  are  but  as  dust 
in  the  balance.  It  is  the  greater,  the  no- 
bler, the  more  important  question — not  only 
,1  as  regards  the  heritage  bequeathed  to  us,  but  in 
regard  to  your  posterity  in  the  coming  generations 


of  the  future.  It  is  whether  this  Republic  of  ours 
shall  live,  or  whether  it  shall  die — whether  this 
country  shall  remain  a  beacon  light  for  the  oppressed 
of  all  nations,  with  the  Union  as  its  insignia,  as  it 
has  been  in  the  past,  of  its  power  and  strength,  or 
whether  it  shall  be  shattered  to  pieces,  and  be  sub- 
ject to  the  insult,  invasion  of  the  foreign  despot, 
until  liberty  shall  be  crushed  out  in  the  warring 
remnants  of  the  American  Republic.  [Voices — 
"Never."]  It  is  for  that  that  hostile  armies  are 
marshalled  to-day  against  the  ranks  of  treason. 
There  are  some  wno  go  about  crying  peace,  peace, 
when  there  can  be  no  peace  except  on  the  basis  of 
submission  to  rightful  authority.  [Cheers.]  Those 
who  would  consent  to  have  the  Union  severed  by  the 
Bword  of  treason  are  as  false-hearted  as  the  pretended 
mother  whose  deceit  Solomon  detected  by  proposing 
to  divide  the  child  to  settle  the  dispute  with  her 
neighbor.  [Cheers.]  Such  a  man  may  have  been 
rocked  in  an  American  cradle  and  suckled  by  an 
American  mother,  but  he  has  not  an  American  heart. 
[Cheers.]  Mr.  Colfax  then  paid  a  just  tribute  to  the 
deeds  of  Gen.  Sigel  in  the  field,  saying  that  he  could 
not  point  to  one  solitary  error  committed  by  him. 
Before  this  war  closes  he  trusted  the  Administration 
would  weed  out  every  commanding  officer  whose 
whole  heart  was  not  in  the  struggle,  and  then  in  the 
closing  Waterloo  of  the  struggle  you  will  see  Sigel 
and  the  men  who  fought  mit  Sigel  charging.  [Loud 
cheers.]  While  the  speaker  indorsed  tbe.  President's 
Proclamation  through  and  through,  yet  he  regarded 
any  man  who  stood  unconditionally  by  the  Union, 
the  President  and  the  army,  as  a  true,  whole-souled 
patriot,  no  matter  whether  he  thought  the  Proclama- 
tion was  the  blood  or  the  marrow.  [Cheers.  |  Some 
said  that  the  South  would  not  submit.  He  would 
say  in  reply  that  it  was  dying  to- day,  and  that  the 
very  women  who  are  now  engaged  in  the  bread  riots 
to  procure  food,  would,  when  the  military  power  of 
the  South  is  broken,  hail  our  flag  not  only  as  an  em- 
blem of  the  Union,  but  as  the  harbinger  of  plenty  to 
them.  [Cheers.]  Mr.  Colfax  closed  by  alluding  to 
the  return  of  the  soldiers  of  New-York,  who,  having 
gone  forth  as  tbe  vindicators  and  defenders  of  the 
Union,  would  return  as  its  saviors,  having  illustrated 
their  devotion  to  the  old  flag,  of  which  one  of  our 
poets  had  so  beautifully  written : 

Flag  of  our  hearts,  our  symbol  and  our  trust, 
Though  traitors  tiample  thy  bright  fulds  iu  dust, 
Though  vile  ambition,  dark  rebellion's  lust 

Conspire  to  tear  thee  down: 
Millions  of  loyal  lips  thy  folds  caress, 
Millions  of  loyal  hearts  thy  stars  do  bless, 
Millions  of  loyal  hands  will  round  thee  presi 
To  guard  thy  old  renown. 
[Three  cheers.] 

SPEECH  OF  GOV.    PIERPONT. 

Governor  Pierpont  of  Virginia  was  the  next 
speaker.  He  remarked  that  the  attack  on  Fort 
Sumter  was  not  the  sudden  impulse  of  passion,  but 
it  was  the  outbreak  of  an  old  feeling  that  had  fought 
against  our  fathers  in  the  days  of  the  Revolution 
under  the  name  of  Tory,  that  had  taken  its  seat  in 
South  Carolina,  and  had  been  in  South  Carolina  pol- 
itics from  that  day  until  tbe  present,  and  had  many 
sympathizers  in  the  shape  of  Copperheads.  [Cheers.] 
They  had  decided  that  the  two  "institutions  of  labor 
in  this  country  could  not  exist;  bad  preached  the 
doctrine  that  "where  labor  participated  in  govern- 
ment the  institutions  of  the  country  could  not  be 
stable,  and  had  affirmed  that  the  laborers  of  the 
South  were  slaves,  and  that  the  laborers  of  the  North 
were  no  better.  They  had  inculcated  all  these_  doc- 
trines into  the  minds  of  their  children,  and  bad  inau- 
gurated this  revolution,  not  for  the  purpose  of  per- 
petuating Slavery  or  dividing  the  North,  but  for  the 
purpose  of  enslaving  laboring  men,  whether  they 
were  in  tbe  Norlh  or  whether  they  were  in  the 
South.  [Applause.]  Tbey  had  been  induced  to  be- 
lieve at  the  South  (and  he  well  knew  it,  because  he 
was  in  their  midst)  that  the  people  of  the  North 


20 


wonld  not  fight ;  and  tbey  believed  that  one  South- 
ern man  -was  equal  to  five  Northern  men,  because 
the  Southerner  was  a  gentleman  and  the  Northerner 
a  slave.  The  North  had  victories  and  reverses  in 
this  contest;  but,  while  the  South  has  been  united 
in  this  great  fii^li t,  the  North  has  had  its  atten- 
tion divided.  The  war  would  soon  draw  to  a  close, 
and  it  must  hnve  one  of  two  terminations.  The 
.South  would  subjugate  the  North  and  put  the 
white  laboring  men  of  the  North  upon  an  equality 
with  their  slaves,  or  else  the  North  would  whip  the 
South,  and  place  them  and  their  slaves  upon  an 
equality,  and  tell  tbem  by  the  eternal  God  that  a 
traitor  bad  no  more  rights  than  a  slave.  [Cheers.] 
Germans,  Irishmen,  fugitives  from  oppression  abroad, 
have  you  not  seen  enough  of  autocracy  in  the  Old 
World?  [Voices — '"Too  macb."]  Have  you  come 
here  to  unite  with  men  to  establish  a  Southern  Con- 
federacy ?  [A  voice — "No — can'teeeit."  Laughter.] 
Have  you  come  here  to  take  part  with  men  who  hold 
that  all  laboring  men  are  unworthy  of  participating 
in  government,  and  are  incapable  of  being  freemen  ? 
Fellow-citizeos,  we  must  be  io  earnest;  we  must  put 
down  all  traitors,  whether  at  the  North  or  at  the 
South ;  we  must  win  in  this  last  fight  for  liberty. 
[Cheers.]  When  future  generations  read  tbe  history 
of  our  country,  they  would  look  back  upon  the  Amer- 
ican Republic  as  the  best  government  tbat  ever  ex- 
isted. Would  the  historian  say  that  five  millions  of 
whites,  backed  up  by  four  millions  of  slaves,  made 
war  upon  a  democracy  of  eighteen  millions,  and 
whipped  aLd  subjugated  them  ?  ["  Never."]  That 
would  not  be  the  case;  but  it  would  be  written  that 
the  freemen  of  the  North  rose  in  their  streng  h  and 
overthrew  tbe  enemy.  In  conclusion,  Gov.  Pierpont 
alluded  to  the  triumphant  vote  io  favor  of  freedom  in 
his  State.  Out  of  48,000  votes  cast  in  1860,  30,000 
were  now  recorded  against  Slavery ;  and  as  the  Rebels 
had  drawn  off  some  12,000  of  the  remainder  into 
the  army,  only  a  corporal's  guard  of  the  allies  of 
Slavery  were  left.  [Cheers.]  He  also  stated  that 
be  meant  to  make  every  man  in  the  State  of  Vir- 
ginia, who  held  office,  swear  to  support  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States,  including  every 
person  holding  a  license,  merchants,  tavern- 
keepers,  muucipal  officers,  ministers  who  celebrated 
the  rites  of  marriage,  bank  officers,  from  president 
to  clerk;  and  he  thought  it  would  do  no  harm  to 
have  a  little  of  that  kiud  of  adnrnistration  here — 
[laughter] — especially  if  it  embraced  eoitors  of 
newspaper*.  [Cheers. J  Gov.  P.  was  here  obliged 
to  stop  on  account  of  the  failure  of  his  voice,  but  be 
hoped  this  wou'd  not  be  Me  last  opportunity  he 
would  have  of  addressing  the  c.tizens  of  New-York. 
[Cheers.] 

Gen.  Sigel  said  that  he  had  had  communication 
with  Gov.  Pieipont,  and  he  had  found  that  he  was  a 
man  of  sound  principles. 

Dr.  Lieber  announced  the  death  of  Jas.  L.  Peti- 
gru  of  Charleston,  and  offered  a  series  of  appropriate 
resolutions,  which  W6re  unanimously  adopted. 

Tbe  Uou.  Montgomery  Bi.air  wae  introduced, 
and  said  a  few  words;  and 

Mr.  Weill  and  Dr.  Foersch  addressed  the  audi- 
ence in  German. 

The  proceedings  were  conducted  in  an  orderly 
manner,  in  strict  accordance  with  the  programme, 
and  the  speakers  were  listened  to  with  the  most 
marked  attention  and  interest,  whether  speaking  in 
German  or  English.  The  concourse  was  large  from 
first  to  last,  and  the  demonstration  was  a  most  suc- 
cessful one. 


STAND  1VO.  4. 

Speeches  by  major-Gen.  Fremont,  the  Hon. 
ISoscoc  Conk  ling,  the  Hon.  Geo.  W. 
Julian,  and  IV.  J.  A.  Fuller,  esq. 

The  presence  of  Major  Gen.  Fremont  and  staff  at 
Stand  No.  4,  attracted  a  large  audience  to  the  north- 
west corner  of  Union  Square,  who  were  entertained, 


before  the  exercises  commenced,  by  music  from 
Robertson's  Band  and  salutes  of  artillery,  which  lat- 
ter did  not  cease  nntil  the  meeting  closed.  The  stand 
was  decorated  with  the  national  (lag,  and  on  eaoh 
end  was  a  banner,  one  inscribed  "  Loyal  National 
Lesgue — a  common  Union,  to  maiutaiu  the  power, 
glory,  and  intelligence  of  the  Union;"  the  other, 
"  .Sustain  our  Brave  Soldiers."  The  platform  was 
girt  round  with  the  legend,  "  Pledged  to  Uncon- 
ditional Loyally." 

The  Hon.  Chas.  King,  of  the  Council  of  the  Loyal 
National  League,  called  tbe  meeting  to  order,  and 
the  proceedings  were  opened  by  prayer,  offered  by 
the  Rev.  Komvell  Hitchcock.  The  reading  of 
tbe  Vice-Presidents  and  Secretaries,  the  address  and 
letters,  was  dispensed  with. 

Robert  B.  Mintuun,  jr.,  read  the  resolutions, 
which  were  carried  by  acclamation.  Then  cam# 
music  by  the  band,  after  which 

The  Chairman  said:  I  am  now  about  to  present 
to  you  one  who  has  a  right  to  claim  your  attention — 
for  he  has  shown  his  devotion  to  his  country  by 
.  leading  her  soldiers  to  tbe  field,  and  by  encountering 
— what  is  worse  than  armed  hosts — the  prejudices  of 
lukewarm  men,  half  and  half  friends  and  patriots — 
men  who,  if  they  had  their  way,  would  make  a 
compromise  to-morrow  with  Slavery  and  all  its  hor- 
rors, and  who  now,  under  the  guise  of  peace,  would 
make  useless,  or  worse  than  useless,  the  treasures  of 
blood  spilled  by  your  children  and  mine,  to  vindicate 
the  glorious  flag  which  Rebels  would  trample  down. 
[Cheers.]  Fellow-citizens,  I  present  to  you  Major- 
Gen.  Fremont. 

Gen.  Fremont  was  greeted  with  a  burst  of  en- 
thusiasm which  continued  some  minutes.  Quiet 
being  restored,  he  said: 

SPEECH  OF  GEN.  FREMONT. 
Fellow-Citizens:  I  bad  the  honor  of  being  asked 
to  meet  you  here  to-day,  and  to  address  you.  1  ac- 
cepted the  invitation  for  the  pleasure  it  gave  me  to 
meel  you,  and  for  tbe  further  satisfaction  I  would 
have  "in  using  the  occaeion  to  say  how  fnlly  and  bow 
cordially  I  sympathize  with  yon  in  tbe  objec's  of 
this  meetiog.  Two  years  ago  you  met  here  and  ac- 
cepted the  war  inaugurated  on  this  memoraMe  day 
at  Fort  Sumter.  [Cheers.]  To-day.  again,  the 
noise  of  battle  rolls  around  that  monumental  fort, 
and  we  are  hourly  waiting  to  hear  tbe  thunder  of 
the  guns  which  shall  announce  that  at  length  our 
outraged  flag  has  been  gloriously  avenged.  [Ap- 
plause.] But  whatever  may  be  the  fortune  of  the 
day,  no  anniversary  could  have  been  found  more  fit- 
ting to  renew  your  pledges  that  there  shall  be  no 
wavering  in  your  support  of  the  Government,  no 
faltering  in  the  purpose  of  the  North  to  restore  and 
maintain,  undivided  aw  free  to  all,  the  whole  terri- 
tory of  the  United  States  of  America.  [Applanse.] 
Tue  public  assemblages,  of  which  this  is  the  first, 
are  intended  to  draw  together  and  to  give  effect  and 
voice  to  the  opinions  and  feelings  of  the  people  on 
the  great  question  of  the  day.  We  welcome  these 
manifestations  as  the  evidence  of  healthy  activity 
in  tbe  publij  mind.  They  indicate  unmistakablv 
tbat  the  nation  is  not  drifting,  but  moving  with  a 
fixed  and  resolute  purpose — that  a  feeling  of  uncon- 
ditional loyalty  is  rapidly  absorbing  all  varieties  of 
opinion,  and  fusing  all  party  distinctions  into  the 
single  resolve  to  preserve  our  national  unity,  at 
every  cost.  [Applause. 1  But  while  permitting  my- 
self the  pleasure  of  meeting  you  here  and  of  taking 
part  in  this  commemoration,  I  bave  declined  to  avail 
myself  of  the  invitation  with  which  I  had  been  hon- 
ored, to  address  you.  The  subjects  on  which  I  had 
been  asked  to  speak  required  a  sc  >pe  of  comment 
and  suggestion,  in  which"  I  do  not  feel  at  liberty  to 
indulge.  I  decline  to  do  so  in  deference  to  the  com- 
(  monly  received  opinion  that  a  certain  offi  ial  pro- 
'  priety  prohibits  officers  of  the  army  and  uavy  from 
speaking  in  popular  assemblies.  But  m  >re  especially 
1  decline  to  do  so,  becauee  I  was  informed,  not  very 
long  since,  tbat  officers  permitting  themselves  to 
take  part  in  public  affairs  outside  of  their  professional 


21 


duties  had  been  characterized  by  blub,  authority  as   • 
"political  Generals."     [Laughter.]     Bat  in  giving 
■way  to  this  usage,  I  am  not  at  all  satisfied  tbat  it  is 
tbe'correct  -view  of  the  scope  of  an  officer's  duty  in 
this  country,  and  amidst  the  disorders  of  a  civil  war. 
Under  other  forms  of  government,  where  the  head  of 
the  nation   shapes  and  directs  its  policy,  and  where 
the  agents  and  the   people  themselves  simply  con- 
form, this  suppressed  freedom  of  speech,  where   it 
must  have  expression,  necessarily  takes  the  form  of 
a  revolt,  and    is  consequently    more    incompatible 
with  the  public  tranquillity.     Bui  in  this  country, 
where  there    is    really  such  a  thing  as    public  af- 
fairs upon  which  the  nation  deliberates,  and  where 
the  vitality  of   the    system  depends  upon  the  fact 
that  every  man    is    expected   to    take  a  living  in- 
terest   in    them,    the     case     is     widely   different. 
Here    the  Government    simply    executts    the  will 
of  the  people,  to  which  it   is   expected   strictly  to 
conform,    and    concerning   which  it    ought,  conse- 
quently, to  be  well   informed.     [Applauee.]    The 
militarv  power  is  only  an   executive  arm  of  the 
sovereign   in  this  country — the  people;  and  instead 
of  forming  that  military  power  into  a  distinct  and 
separate  class,   and  creating  barriers  between  the 
army  and  the  people,  everything  ought  to  be  done  to 
keep  the  soldier  oae  of  them  [applause],  having  com- 
mon interests  and  common  opinions.     [Applause.] 
To  isolate  them  and  their  sentiments  would   be,  or 
might  be,  highly  dangerous  to  our  free  Government, 
and  in  this  country  there  should  De  no  such  thing  as 
a  military  party.     [Applause.]    We  have  lately  seen  . 
wich  what  satisfaction  the  country  received  the  reso- 
lutions of  our  troops  in  the  field — how  timely  and 
important  was  their  influence — not  the  less  because 
it  was  evident  that  they  had  no  idea  of  merging  into 
the  soldier  their  sympathies  and  privileges  of  the 
citizen.     [Applause.]     And  it  is  absurd  to  say  that 
in  a  war  of  ideas,  a  conflict  of  principles,  in  a  revo- 
lution which  is  taking  the  shape  of  a  refoima'ion — a 
revolution  which  involves  the  civilization  of  the  age, 
and  to  the  results  of  which  the  friends  of  liberty  are 
looking  with  the  deepest  anxiety  and  interest  io. 
every  part  of   the  world — in  all  this    momentous 
struggle,  that  the  men  most  actively  concerned,  tak- 
ing toe  most  active  part  and  making  the  costliest 
sacrifices,  should  have  no  opinion.     It  is  idle  to  tell 
us  that  the  opinions  of  officers  in  important  places 
have   no   influence    on   the   conduct   and   the  re- 
sults   of    the    war.     Nor    does    it    always   hap- 
pen   that    a    General    has     the    choice    to    ren- 
der his   service    to    the    country  in  the  more   con- 
genial duties  of  the  field;    he  may   be  placed  in 
charge  of  a  distant  and  rebellious   province,  sepa- 
rated, disconnected  from  the  seat  of  the  Government 
by  the  conditions  of  the  war,  and  where  necessarily 
be  must  be  much  governed  by  his  own  convictions 
and  his  own  opinions.      Would  it  reflect — does  it  re- 
flect on  the  soldierly  qualities  of  that    General  that 
he  had  the  ability  to   institute  a  policy  which  ena- 
bled him,  in  the  midst  of  rebellion   and   anarchy,  to 
hold  in  subjection  to  the  laws   and  to    reduce  into 
good  order  and  healthy   propriety,  and  to  restore  in 
its  commercial  relations  to  the   Union,  the  great  me- 
tropolis of  the  South.      [Applause.]     Men  who,  by 
uniting  with  you  here   two  years    a.xo,    subjected 
themselves  to  the  charge  of  being  political  Generals, 
have  sealed  with   their   lives  their  devotion  to  this 
cause.  [Applause.]  Then  Schenck  and  Mitchel  and 
Baker  spoke  to  you  here.    [Applause.]    The  one  has 
given  bis  blood  and  the  others  their  lives  in  your  ser- 
vice.   [Applause.j     Were  they  the  leas  good  soldiers 
because  tbey  came  to  you  here,  on  the  eve  of  battle, 
to  get  inspiration  and  to  find  encouragement  and  re- 
newed strength  in  the  assurances  of  your  support  ? 
[Applause  and  cries  of  "  No."]      It  is  not  here  that 
the  name  of   "  political    General"    can  be  consid- 
ered a  stigma    or    a  disqualification.     [ Applause. | 
Already  shadows  begin  to  people  this  place,  and  the 
spot  has  become  classic  ground.    Two  years  ago  this 
was  one  among  the  many  beautiful  openings  which 
decorate  your  city.     You  had   no  Bunker  Hill  to 
serve  as  a  field-altar  of  patriotism.    In  this  splendid 


city — this  radiating  center  of  the  material  prosperity 
of  the  country — there  was  wanting  the  traditional 
spot  in  sight  of  which  no  man  could,  without  shame, 
fall  below  the  spirit  of  the  day  which  gave  it  an  his- 
toric fame.  [Applause.]  But  here  already  you 
have  sermons  in  these  stones — there  you  have  your 
field-altar.  [Cheers.]  In  tight  of  that  statue  of 
Washington  you  come  here  to-day  to  renew  your 
pledges— you  promise  that  in  his  hand,  which  two 
years  ago  held  up  to  your  indignant  gaze  your  dis- 
carded and  outraged  flag,  you  will  yet  place  the 
standard  which  shall  be  raised  in  victory  over  the 
walls  of  Sumter.  [Great  applause.]  Ton  promise 
that  you  will  never  agree  to  a  dismemberment  of  the 
country  which  he  left  you — [Voices — '•  Never,"  and 
applause] — and  that  next  to  the  crime  of  the  traitors 
who  are  striking  in  arms  at  the  life  of  the  nation, 
you  will  hold  the  guilt  of  those  men  who,  placed  in 
responsible  positions,  do  not  use  every  effort  to  di- 
rect, with  most  terrible  energy,  the  power  of  this 
country  to  destroy  the  Rebellion.  [Tremendous 
cheering,  and  three  times  three  cheers  for  Gen.  Fre- 
mont.] 

The  Chairman:  I  now,  fellow-citizens,  present 
to  you  one  of  our  own  representatives — a  man  who 
has  proved  that  bullyiog  could  not  hurt  him.  He 
was  a  member  of  Congress  when  this  great  crime 
was  committed,  and  the  experiment  was  tried  on 
him  which  has  been  tried  on  others,  by  some  of  the 
yellow-faced  Southern  chivalry — to  bully  him,  by 
talk  of  pistols  and  bo wie  knives.  He  told  them, 
' '  By  the  grace  of  God,  I  carry  my  defenders  here 
(pointing  to  his  breast),  and  if  any  man  wants  to 
fight,  let  him  come  on."  [Vehement  cheers.]  I 
present  to  you  Mr.  Roecoe  Conkling. 

SPEECH  OF  HON.  ROSCOE  CONKLING. 
Loud  applause  greeted  Mr.  Conkling,  who  said:  • 
Mr.  Chairman  and  Fellow-Citizens  :  Too 
have  assembled  to  commemorate  an  event  which 
must  be  memorable  in  history  to  the  latest  syllable 
of  recorded  time.  You  celebrate  an  anniversary 
which  will  be  canonized,  or  cursed,  till  the  holiest 
fountains  of  human  sentiment  are  forever  frozen  or 
dried  up.  You  solemnize  the  recurrence  of  a  day 
which  will  stand  in  the  calendar  hereafter  as  a  day 
which  did  much  to  manifest  the  nothingness  or  immor- 
tality of  human  rights.  [Cheers.]  The  12th  of  April, 
1861,  was  a  day  of  darkness  and  despair;  our  sun 
was  eclipsed,  and  no  man  could  see  to  read  the  dial. 
It  was  a  day  of  humiliation  and  death,  but  through 
that  death  there  came  a  glorious  resurrection  and 
ascension.    When  Samter  fell, 

"  You,  and  I,  and  all  of  us  fall  down, 
And  bloody  treason  flourished  over  us." 

[Cheers.]  But  two  years  have  passed — two  years- 
"  of  plots  and  counterplots,  of  gain  and  loss,  of  glory 
and  disgrace" — and  undismayed  and  undaunted,  you 
come  to  say  to  doubters  and  to  enemies,  as  William 
Tell  said  to  bis  native  mountaineers, 

"  We  hold  to  you  the  hands  you  first  beheld, 
To  siow  they  still  are  free."  [Cheers.  J 

It  seeme  to  be  a  maxim  in  the  economy  of  Provi- 
dence that  the  trials  of  a  nation  are  in  the  ratio  of 
its  destinies.  If  it  be  poor  and  powerless,  if  it 
have  no  empire  and  holds  no  position  envied  by  the 
world,  it  may  escape  the  blasts  of  war,  and  languish 
for  long  intervals  in  unmolested  caimnees.  But  if 
it  be  rich  and  powerful,  if  it  claim  as  its  own  one- 
tenth  of  the  globe,  if  in  the  lifetime  of  a  single 
man  it  grows  to  be  the  foremost  Power  in  all  the 
earth,  it  must  accept  peri's  and  struggles  as  the  price 
of  its  greatness  and  success. 

If  beside  being  powerful,  a  people  has  set  up  in- 
stitutions in  which  no  trace  of  a'isti cracy  or  king- 
craft is  tolerated,  it  has  voluntarily  elected  to  make 
its  own  soil  the  theater  of  a  cun'.est  which  has  been 
wagicg  6ince  time  began  between  oppression  and 
liberty.  It  is  the  mitsion  and  loreordaiue  1  destiny 
of  a  people  assuming  to  found  and  maintain  a 
democratic  Government  to  wrestle  and  grapple  with 


22 


the  foes  of  freedom  and  equality  withii  and  with- 
out;  and  the  struggle  now  raging  in  America  is  only 
the  old  battle  for  human  rights  transplanted  from 
the  Old  World  to  the  New.  [Applause.]  We  had 
no  right  to  expect  to  escape  it.     Why  should  we  ? 

Why  should  we  hope  to  elude  the  evil  passions 
and  instincts  which  have  led  men  the  world  over  to 
seek  the  destruction  of  equal  rights,  and  the  aggran- 
dizement of  the  few  at  the  expense  of  the  many  ? 
-  We  knew  that  nowhere  Lad  men  relinquished 
superior  and  exclusive  privilege  without  a  contest; 
why  should  they  do  it  here — here  in  the  new  world, 
the  place  reserved  for  republican  government  to 
vindicate  itself  forever,  or  to  wither  from  the  world  ? 

Time,  and  civilization,  and  government,  had  their 
morning  not  in  the  west,  but  in  the  east.  Dawn 
flushed,  and  yet  centurieB  rolled  by  before  light 
broke  upon  the  Western  Continent. 

Why  was  this? 

Why  was  half  the  globe  kept  hidden  away  behind 
a  trackless  waste  of  waters,  till  the  otherhalf  had 
been  dug  over  and  over,  to  bury  its  dead.  Why 
were  progress  and  barbarism  mewed  up  so  long  in 
the  old  world,  to  solve  iu  blood  the  problems  of 
humanity  ? 

Perhaps  the  new  world  was  reserved  till  mankind 
should  be  fitted  for  a  higher  and  better  dispensation. 

Perhaps  it  was  designed  to  withhold  this  inheri- 
tance from  man,  till  the  race  had  been  tried,  and  in- 
structed, and  exalted,  by  the  wisdom  and  the  folly, 
the  virtues  and  the  vices  of  wasted  ages. 

If  this  was  the  design,  we  can  understand  oar 
mission,  and  accept  our  responsibilities. 

If  it  is  the  mission  of  the  American  people  to  make 
their  continent  a  garden  for  the  growth  of  a  new 
civilization,  higher  and  better  aud  truer  than  the 
world  has  ever  known,  we  may  understand  the 
ionic  which  permits  blood  to  stain  our  land. 

If  we  maintain  successfully  that  man  needs  no 
mortal  master  but  himself,  we  bring  forth  a  great 
new  truth,  and  no  great  truth  was  ever  jTet  born 
into  the  world  without  great  pangs. 

It  cost6  great  pangs  to  plant  the  germ  of  free  gov- 
ernment here,  and  the  manner  in  which  the  experi- 
ment began  might  well  convince  the  mind  of  faith 
that  Providence  bad  charge  over  it.  The  task  was 
undertaken  by  a  group  of  men  which  no  previous 
age  could  have  produced.  They  were  the  victims  of 
all  the  bad  systems  of  government  then  extant,  and 
they  were  ctdled  to  devise  a  new  system  just  when 
the  world  was  all  ablaze  with  political   intelligence. 

All  tue  past  was  before  tiem,  and  the  French  Rev- 
olution was  just  delivering  its  terrible  message  to 
mankiud. 

Two  forms  of  government  had  already  been  tried 
here. 

The  Colonial  system  had  been  tested  and  thrown 
off. 

The  Confederate  system  bad  been  fairly  tried,  and 
found  fit  to  live  only  through  the  revolution  it  sup- 
ported. All  the  members  of  the  Confederacy  had 
found  the  need  of  a  stronger  system,  closer  knit.  I 
say  all — all  but  South  Carolina,  who  put  herself  up 
to  be  raffled  for  by  the  contending  parties,  to  belong 
to  the  British  Crown  or  the  American  Republic,  as 
the  one  or  the  otiier  should  succeed  in  the  struggle  of 
which  she  was  to  be  the  safe  spectator. 

The  Fathers  of  the  Republic,  in  their  almost  in- 
spiration, saw  clearly  that  a  Government,  to  be  en- 
during and  free,  must  be  a  uuiou,  not  of  States,  but 
of  the  people;  not  a  partnership,  nor  a  club  of  thir- 
teen members,  but  an  eternal  wedlock  of  the 
nation. 

They  fashioned  their  work  accordingly — they  ex- 
cluded carefully  all  State  rights  which  would  mili- 
tate against  the  supremacy  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment. 

Some  of  their  acts  seem  prophetic  now,  when  men 
here  m  New-York,  "  leading  politicians,"  as  Lord 
Lyons  calls  ttiem.  are  proposing  to  array  the  State 
against  the  General  Government,  and  to  nullify  the 
act  for  enrolling  soldiers,  and  other  acts  of  Congress. 


An  effort  was  made  to  put  into  the  Constitution 
some  way  in  wtiicb  men  could  oppose  the  General 
Government,  under  cover  of  State  authority,  and 
yet  dodge  the  halter,  but  the  halter  was  carefully 
kept  ii. 

Luther  Martin,  the  Attorney-General  of  Maryland, 
went  home  from  the  Convention  and  delivered  to 
the  Legislature  of  his  State  the  following  statement, 
which  I  commend  to  those  politicians  with  a  snaky 
name,  who,  according  to  the  good  book,  must  be  the 
moBt  subtle  of  all  the  beasis  of  the  held  [loud  cheers 
aud  laughter): 

"  By  the  principles  of  the  American  Revolution  arbitrary 
power  may,  and  ought  to  be  resisted,  even  by  arms  if  neces- 
sary. The  time  may  come  when  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  a 
State,  in  order  to  preserve  itself  from  the  oppression  of  the 
General  Government,  to  have  recourse  to  the  sword:  iu  which 
case  the  proposed  form  of  government  declares  that  the  St»te, 
and  every  one  of  its  citizens  who  act  under  its  authority,  are 
guilty  of  a  direct  act  of  treason;  reducing  by  this  provision 
the  different  States  to  this  alternative,  that  they  must  tamely 
and  pissively  yield  to  despotism,  or  their  citizent  mutt  oppote 
it  at  the  hiza'd  of  the  halter  if  untuccestful — and  reducing  tht 
citizen*  of  the  State  which  thall  take  armi  to  a  titualion  in 
which  they  mutt  be  exposed  to  punithmenl,  let  them  act  at  they 
will,  tince  if  they  obey  the  authority  of  their  Staff  C,  tern- 
ment,  they  will  be  guilty  of  treaton  againtt  the  Vnitel  States; 
if  they  join  the  General  Government,  they  will  be  guilty  of 
treason  against  their  own  State. 

"  To  save  the  citizens  of  the  respective  Stites  from  this 
disagreeable  dilemma,  and  to  secure  them  Iroui  bein^  puuinli- 
able  as  traitors  to  the  United  Statet,  when  acting  expressly  in 
obedience  to  the  authority  of  their  own  State,  I  wished  to 
have  obtained  as  an  ameudment  to  the  tnird  section  of  this 
article,  the  following  clause: 

"  '  Provided,  That  no  act  or  acts  done  by  one  or  more  of  the 
.  States  against  the  United  States,  or  by  any  citizen  of  any  one 
of  the  United  States  under  the  authorit  f  of  one  or  more  of  the 
said  States,  shall  be  deemed  treaton  or  punished  at  tuch;  but, 
in  case  of  war  being  levied  by  one  or  more  of  the  States 
against  the  United  States,  the  conduct  of  eich  party  toward 
the  other,  aud  their  adherents  respectively,  shall  be  regulated 
by  the  laws  of  war  and  of  nations.' 

"  But  this  provision  was  not  adopted,  being  too  much 
opposed  to  the  great  object  of  many  of  trie  leading  members 
of  the  Convention,  which  was  by  all  means  to  leave  the  States 
at  the  mercy  of  the  General  Government,  since  they  could  uot 
succeed  in  their  immediate  and  entire  abolition." 

With  such  views  the  Constitution  was  formed, 
and  went  mto  operation  over  a  country  infinitely 
diversified  in  soil,  climate,  and  production. 

The  attractive  portion  of  the  Republic  was  the 
South.  Its  breezes  were  bland,  its  clime  was  almost 
perpetual  Summer,  its  soil  needed  only  to  be  tickled 
with  a  hoe  to  laugh  with  a  harvest.  All  these 
charms  had  enticed  the  rich,  the  indolent,  and  the 
idle.  The  8eat  of  population,  and  allowed  repre- 
sentation in  Congress  upon  its  chattels,  of  course  it 
became  the  seat  of  political  power.  For  three- 
quarters  of  a  century  it  ruled  the  country  absolutely, 
and  enjoyed  almost  a  monoply  of  public  honors. 

But  it  relied  upon  unskilled,  unpaid  labor,  and 
there  was  the  bane  of  its  success.  Though  it 
started  with  everything,  it  was  outstripped  by  free 
labor,  which  started  with  nothing. 

Political  questions  continually  arose,  and  were 
always  decided  for  and  by  the  South.  While  this 
continued,  the  South  was  quiet,  apparently,  yet 
ever  plotted  against  the  time  when  decisions  might 
result  iu  favor  of  other  sections  of  the  country.  At 
last  that  time  arrived  for  once.  [Applause.]  A 
President  not  of  Southern  choosing  was  elected. 
What  of  that  1  Did  the  leading  managing  men  of 
the  South  fear  that  their  rights  or  their  slaves  would 
be  taken  from  them  ?  I  deny  it.  After  some  as- 
sociation, in  Congress  and  out,  with  those  who 
plunged  the  South  into  Rebellion,  I  deny  that  they 
for  a  moment  feared  that  Abraham  Lincoln  would 
or  could  dioturb  their  ios.itutions. 

But  there  was  another  thing  they  did  fear.  Their 
personal  ambition  would  be  thwarted,  aud  also  their 
plans  for  prostituting  the  Government  for  the  ben- 
efit of  their  own  ''section,"  as  they  called  it. 

The  time  had  come  when  they  and  their  sons 
could  no  longer  bold  all  the  offices,  civil  and  mili- 
tary, at  home  aud  abroad,  and  when  they  could  no 
longer  manage  the  foreign  and  borne  policy  of  the 
Government   so   as  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  anybody 


23 


who  happened  to  have  an  inland  or  anything  else 
that  they  wanted  to  steal.     [Cheers.] 

They  were  to  be  deprived  of  these  things  if  they 
stayed  in  the  Union ;  if  they  went  out,  they  saw 
visions  of  new  wealth  and  power.  A  new  empire 
in  the  tropics  dazzled  their  eyes.  An  unlimited  and 
unrestrained  licence  to  steal  land  from  feeble 
neighbors  on  the  South  and  to  plant  it 
with  Slavery,  the  reopening  of  the  slave- 
trade  to  Christianize  tbe  barbarians  of 
Africa,  these  and  kindred  objects  seemed  to  them 
preferable  to  remaining  in  a  Government  in  which 
they  must  at  last  divide  the  monopoly  they  had  en- 
joyed. Fair  play  is  what  tbey  rebelled  against; 
equality  is  what  they  couldn't  endure;  free  govern- 
ment put  into  actualpractice  is  what  they  would  not 
submit  to,  and  they  made  a  bloody  issue  to  de- 
stroy it. 

Is  not  this  tbe  old  fight  over  again,  the  encounter 
once  more  between  equal  rights  and  privilege,  the 
dying  tick  of  despotism  ? 

Surely  it  is,  and  with  an  aristocratic  element  in 
the  Government,  it  was  bound  to  come.  You  could 
not  check  the  laws  of  growth  in  the  North,  nor  of 
decay  in  the  South,  and  hence,  in  time,  the  balance 
of  power  was  sure  to  charge.  This  was  inevitable, 
and  yet  the  minorty  would  not  loosen  their  hold, 
without  dipping  their  hands  in  the  blood  of  their 
country. 

I  laid  down  the  proposition  that  the  trials  of  a 
nation  must  be  gauged  by  its  destinies,  and  is  it  not 
clear  that  our  destiny  left  us  no  course  except  to  re- 
sist to  the  uttermost  the  bloody  raid  which  we  are 
still  repelling? 

The  patriotism  of  the  people  answered  that  ques- 
tion two  years  ago  to-day.  Gen.  Jackson  believed 
that  there  was  deitj-and  divinity  in  masses  of  men — 
tbat  whatever  a  nation  affirmed  to  be  true,  must  be 
immutable'trnth.  {Cheers.]  Never,  perhaps,  was 
there  stronger  proof  of  the  quick  infallibility  of  a 
people's  instinct,  than  when  the  heart  of  America 
vibrated  with  the  news'  that  traitors  had  battered 
Sumter,  and  trampled  on  the  flag.  [Applause.]  Did 
any  man  among  you  speak  of  submission  or  sepa- 
ration at  tbat  time?  No;  those  who  could  not 
speak  for  their  country  then,  were  dumb — they  dared 
not  speak  for  treason. 

They  dared  not  consort  with  tbe  Embassador  of  a 
foreign  power  to  betray  their  country  then.  They 
riared  not  hawk  at  their  Government  then,  and  assail 
it  with  the  tricks  of  the  mountebank  and  the  pettifog- 
ger. Public  sentiment  would  rot  tolerate  it.  "Why 
does  public  sentiment  tolerate  it  now  ? 

Why  does  public  sentiment  tolerate  it  in  this  proud 
city,  where,  beside  all  higher  motives,  you  have 
such  an  enormous  stake  of  money,  in  the  supremacy 
of  the  Government?  Here,  wbere  two  hundred 
millions  of  debts  are  due  fiom  the  South,  here  where 
you  have  for  ten  years  furnish*  d  90  per  cent  of  all 
the  money  the  Government  has  had,  here  where  vou 
hold  Government  securities  amounting  to  more  than 
eighty  million  dollars,  why  is  it  that  public  senti- 
ment tolerates  men  who  are  doing  more  to  help  Ee- 
bellion  than  if  they  had  muskets  in  their  hands  and 
steed  behind  the  Eebel  lines  ?  There  ought  to  be 
sc  me  gcod  reason  why  loyal  people  are  doomed  to  put 
up  with  the  revilings  and  hypocritical  lamentations 
and  complaints  of  men  who,  for  the  wrongs  done 
their  country  ought  to  be  daily  and  nightly  on  their 
knees  asking  forgiveness  from  Gcd  and  the  mourners. 

It  is  difficult  to  know  what  to  do  with  such  peo- 
ple.    [A  voice:  "  Hang 'em."     "  Hang  'em."] 

Mr.  Conkling— No,  no.  That  would  violate  the 
wise  advice  of  Dr.  Johnson.  Goldsmith  asked  the 
Doctor  whether  a  nan  who  had  disgraced  himself 
wouldn't  do  well  to  cut  bis  throat  ?  "  Why  no,"  said 
the  Doctor,  "if  he  has  disgraced  himself,  let  him  so 
where  he  isn't  known,  in  place  of  going  to  hell, 
where  he  is  sure  to  be  known."  [Great  Laughter.] 
The  success  these  disturbers  have  in  misleading  ethers 


shows  the  justice  cf  the  saying  that  a  lie  will  run  a 
mile  while  tbe  truth  is  putting  on  its  shoes  and  stock- 
ings. Suppose  their  charges  and  statements  are  all 
true,  just  as  they  make  them,  does  that  justify  or  ex- 
cuse them  in  tbe  course  they  have  pursued  ?  Suppose 
it  is  true  tbat  the  President,  and  the  Cabinet,  and 
Congress,and  the  Administration  party  have  all  done 
-wrong,  why  should  the  Nation  be  murdered  and  the 
Government  destroyed  for  that  ? 

The  war  is  for  the  supremacy  of  the  ballot-box 
[cheers],  and  it  is  only  by  standing  by  the  Govern- 
ment and  maintaining  it,  that  we  can  preserve   the 
ballot-box,  and  the  ballot-box  is  the  only  means  of 
correcting  public  abuses  if  they  exist.    If  men  are 
honest  in  saying  that  the   Government  is  in  unfit 
hands,  let  them  help  to  wrest  it  from  the  assassins 
who  are  aiming  daggers  at  its  heart;  and  when  this 
is  done,  the  people  can  elect  better  and  more  capable 
men.    But  what  reason  is  there  in  allowing  the 
Government  to  be  ruine  d  because  the  acts  of  those 
who  happen  to  represent  it  for  a  space  are  distaste- 
ful 7     I  Cheers.]     If  there  are  imperfections  on  the 
Administration's  head,  it  is  no  time  to  rebuke   or 
punish  them  now.      But  at  any  time  there  is  no 
justice    in    most    of   the    clamors  lately  raised  for 
political   effect,    and    I    will  say    a   word  of  one 
or  two  of  them.      It  is  charged  by  Secession  sym- 
pathizers as  one  of  the  reasons  for  assailing  the  Gov- 
ernment,   that    the   Eebellion  is  the  result  of  agi- 
tating the  question  of  Slavery.      Suppose  it  is— is 
the  North,  are  the  Anti-Slavery  men  of  the  ^orth  to- 
be  blamed  or  punished  for  that  ?    Who  has  agitated 
the  Slaverv  question  in  this    country  since  lS^U  I 
There  was"no  agitation  in  1851  and  '52  except  bv  a 
few  Abolitionsts,  who  had  n't  votes  enough  to  elect 
a  constable  from    Maine  to  Minnesota.      We   had 
hushed  all  agitation  then.    We  had  anne *ed  Texas 
to  extend  the  area  of  Slaveiy,  and  fought  a  bloody 
war  and  paid  $300,000,000  in  consequence.    T.\  e  had 
acquired  new  territories,  but  they  bad  been  brought 
in  without  any  restriction  against  Slavery.    \\  e  had 
adopted   the   Compromise  measures   of   1850.     We 
had  given  the  South  such  boundaries  as  she  wanted, 
we  bad  paid  ten  millions,  and  adopted  a  Fugitive 
Slave  law,  which  I   heard  Douglas  tell  Maeon.he 
(Mason)  drew,   and  made  as  stringent  as  he  could 
and  Mason  admitted  it.    What   was  there  then  to 
aeitaTe  Slaveiy  for?     In   1852  both  the  National 
Conventions  adopts  the  same  platform   accepting 
the  Compromise  measure  as  a  finality,  and  congratu- 
Intin*  the  people  that  tbe  end   had  come  at  last  of 
stvegry  agitation.  The  nation  went  to  sleep  thinking 
tl  e  ne  Jro  had  been  put  aside,  and  that  the  legislation 
of  the  fountry  was  to  be  turned  to  its  commercial, 
man'ufactunn7,,   and  material  wants.    Eepose  and 
reace  was  everywhere,  when  suddenly  there  came  a 
voice  as  piercing  as  a  cry  of  fire  in  the  night   and 
men  started,  as  they  would  leap   from  their  beds  to 
see  if   the   house  was  in   flames.     What   was  it  ? 
Why,  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  to  be  repealed. 
The" Missouri  Compromise!     That  wall  which  our 
fathers    built     between     Slavery     and    Freedom, 
that    great      covenant    which      had    tranqmlbzed 
a    continent,     and    to      which      every    man    was 
pledged  and  his  father  before  him— was    ihat    to 
be     destroyed?        Who     was      to    do    it?      Had 
anyone  in  the  North  petitioned  Congress  to  do  it  ? 
No.     Let  us  remonstrate,  let   us  pray  Congress  not 
to  do  so  huge  a  wrong,   not  to  hoist  the  flood-gates 
of  agitation,  and  launch  the  nation  upon  a  boundless 
Eea  of  sectional  contention.     The  people  assembled 
in  their  might,  they  conjured  the  \  arty  in  power  to 
stay  its  hard,  thev  implored  the  majority  in  Congress 
by  the  memories'ot'  the  past  «nd  the  hopes  and  fears 
of  the  future;  they  sent  to  Washington  memorials 
which  if   heaped    together  would    have  barricaded 
Pennsylvania  Avenue.     But  all  to  no  purpose;  the 
Missouri  Compromiee  fell,  and    fell  with    a    crash 
which  reeotrnds  ytt  in  this  Heeding  country.     [Ap- 


24 


plans*.]  Who  did  it?  Who  did  it  ?  Who  did  it  7 
Who,  as  Air.  Fillmore  *aid,  opened  this  Pandora's 
box,  t>nd  let  loose  every  evil  of  sectional  madnem 
and  strife?  Did  Northern  Anti-Slavery  men  do  it  ? 
Did  any  Anti-Slavery  man  vote  for  it  ?  Was  it  any- 
thing out  a  monstrous,  treasonable,  cheat  of  the 
8Javery  interest?  [Cheers.]  Who  carried  the  torch 
£>t  thf  incendiary,  arid  the  knife  of  the  murderer,  ioto 
the  Tt-rii'orifS  ?  Who  sacked  their  village*  and 
dreocl'ei  their  fields  in  blood?  Wro  attempt'  d  to 
force  Slavery  upon  an  unwilling  people?  Who  tried 
to  force  through  the  Lrompion  Constitution,  foul 
with  violence  and  fraud  ?  Has  there  been  any 
Slavery  ayitution  in  this  country  for  ten  years  not 
produced  by  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  ? 
It  was  that  repeal  which  Raw  birth  to  the  Repub- 
lican parly,  which  filled  its  ranks  with  the  members 
of  all  existing  organizations,  and  gave  1,300,000 
votes  to  John  Charles  Fremont.  If  Slavery  agita- 
tion has  contributed  to  the  Rebellion,  let  tbe  blame 
be  where  tbo  truth  puts  it,  and  not  on  the  Ami- 
Slavery  men  of  the  North.  Let  us  remember  who 
the  incendiaries  are,  who,  after  setting  fire  to  the 
house,  complain  that  those  who  come  to  pat  it  oat 
make  a  great  fut?s.  and  agitation,  and  disturbance 
generally.  Bat  whoever  agitated,  and  however 
wantonly,  what  has  that  to  do  now  with  rescuing 
our  Goverment  and  our  liberties  from  the  uplifted 
band  of  treason  ? 

Tuere  is  another  wioked  pretext  fashionable  now 
with  the  disloyal  and  the  false.  It  is  alleged  that 
after  Secession  began  it  might  have  been  coaxed  to 
stop  by  Compromise;  audi  wan),  to  men  ion  one  thing 
on  this  head  to  show  how  much  audacity  a  man  must 
have  to  assume  the  ground  held  by  politicians  of  a 
certain  school  in  this  Sate.  Tbey  are  protesting  that 
they  were  for  something  at  the  time  which,  if  it  had 
been  adopted  by  Congress,  would  have  averted  the 
whole  difficulty.  What  were  they  for  in  the  Legis- 
lature at  Albany?  They  said  that  the  grievance 
of  the  South  was,  that  slaveholders  were  in 
danger  of  being  shut  out  of  th»  Territori  -s  where  tbe 
climate  would  let  Slavery  live,  and  that  was  the 
trouble  to  te  removed.  They  had  a  plan  for  doing 
it.  It  was  called  the  Robinson  proposition,  and  was 
urged  and  supported  as  all-sufficient  by  the  very 
men  wbo  are  now  around  ioqairiDg  who  is  respon- 
sible for  the  war,  and  insisting  that  it  might  have 
been  compromised.  What  was  the  Robinson  prop- 
osition ?  It  proposed  that  all  the  Territories  should 
be  cut  in  two  by  the  old  Missouri  Compromise  line, 
and  that  all  north  of  that  line  should  come  in  as  a 
free  State,  and  on  the  south  Slavery  should  take  its 
chance;  and  whenever  the  Territory  filled  up  with 
the  number  of  people  required  for  a  representative 
in  Cungress,  it  should  come  in  as  a  State.  This  was 
the  pauacea  commended  then  in  New-York  by  thoee 
wbo  now  opnose  the  war.  Now  let  me  remind  you 
that  the  political  frierds  of  the  present  Administra- 
tion offered  the  South  twice  as  much  as  the 
Robinson  proposition,  and  it  was  spurned.  We 
offered  them  all  the  territory  where  Slavery 
could  flourish,  and  offered  it  without  con- 
dition. We  offered  to  admit  all  as  a 
State  with  Slavery.,  if  it  came  with  Slavery  in  its 
Constitution,  to  adm't  it  at  once,  without  waiting 
for  a  wbite  man  to  move  into  it,  and  without  any 
stipulation  or  understanding  that  any  Northern  ter- 
ritory shou'd  come  in  free.  The  territory  thus  to  be 
surrendered  to  Slavery  was  free  by  the  laws  of 
Mexico.  You  will  see  tbe  difference — the  Robinson 
proposition  required  that  tbe  North  should  have,  as 
an  offse',  the  half  of  the  territory  free,  and  admit- 
ted as  a  Stale,  and  further,  that  the  South  should 
not  form  its  territory  into  a  State  until,  in  lapse  of 
time,  the  census  showed  110,000  people  there; 
whereas  the  proposition  offered  to  the  South,  in 
Congress,  said  nothing  about  the  North  having  any 
sbart-,  a*id  did  not  require  an  hour's  delay  nor  any 
number  of  population  whatever.  Yet  the  Robiusoa 
resolution  was  thought  enough  to  offer  by  the  same 
men  -who  now  cliim  tbat  reasonable  offers  would 
have    been    accepted.     They    know    that  nothing 


would  have  been  accepted  except  the  prostration  of 
the  Government.    Tfiey   know  that  the  Crittenden 
Ccmpron.ise  was  defeated   by  Southern  votes  in  the 
Senate,  us  Gov.  Johmon  stated  the  other  night  at 
your  Academy  of  Music,   and  as   Ivlward  Everett 
affirmed  in  liottou  day  before  yesterday.  But  again, 
what    difference    does    it    make    now    whttl  it  or 
not  if    we   had  done  something  some  other  time, 
something      else      wouldn't      Lave      happened  ? 
Tbere  is  another  plea  for  opposing  the  war,  whn-h 
I  see  is  done  not  only  into  speeches,  but  into  poetry, 
here  now.    It  is  that  the  Government  party  is  labor- 
ing not  to  restore  the   Union,  but  to  emancipate  all 
the  slaves  even   if  so  doing  prevents  a  restoration. 
This  is   believed   by  some  fools,  perhaps  by  somo 
knaves,  and  possibly  by  some  honest  people,  but 
thev  must  be  rat-er  pig-beaded.     It  ought  not  to  be 
believed  or  countenanced   by  any  wbo    sympathize 
with  our  soldiers  in  tbe  field,  and  want  to  see  them 
spared  hardship  or  exposure.     When  the  war  began 
it  was  supposed  tbat   Slavery  would  be  an  element 
of  weakness  to  our  enemies — ihat  the  fear  of  servile 
insurrection  among  four  millions  of  bondmen  would 
keep  part  of  the  masters  at  home.    We  bad  a  right 
to  think  so.    John  Brown,  with  seventeen  negroes 
and  a  cow,    bad    struck    terror    into   all  Virginia. 
[Cheers  atd  laughter  ]    John  Randolph  said  in  Con- 
gress, "  Tne  fire   bell  never  rings  iu  Richmond  that 
every   mother  does  not  c  asp  her  baby  more  closely 
to  her  breast."     Why   was    this  ?    Bscause    tbey 
lived  ou  a  volcano,   and  knew   not  at  what  hour  in- 
cendiary fire*  would  burst  forth,  ensbroidiu^  cities, 
and  painting  hell  on  the  sky.    Wasut  it  reasonable 
to  suppose   that  an   element  so  dreadful  as  this  in 
peace,  would  be  fearful  in  time  of  war?    Wasn't  it 
patriotic  to  hope  and  to  wish  that  slave-owners  and 
overseers,  might,  for  fear  of  slave  massacre',  be  kept 
at  borne,  in  place  of  going  to  the  battle  fields  of  re- 
bellion   to    slaughter    yonr    neighbors    and  mine? 
Wasn't   it  right  to  take  advantage  of  Slavery,  and 
manage  it  to  weaken  and  paralyze  oarenemies  ?     But 
what  was  done  in  deference  to  the  policy  of  those 
who  have  stolen  the  garment  of    "conservatism," 
and  are  so  pleated  with  their  new  clothes  that  they 
are  likely  to  strut  themselves  to  death  ?    Why,  Gen- 
erals,   "conservative"  GtDerals,  began  to  issue  proc- 
lamations,  and   kept  issuing  proclamations  to    tbe 
slaves  and  their  masters,  saying,  "Now,  slaves,  be 
kind  and  obedient  to  your  masters;  don't  you  run 
away,  if  you  do  we'll  send  yon  hack;  don't  you  rise, 
if  you  do  we  11  put  you  down  with  the  whole  power 
of  the  army,   and  don't  you  go  to  scaring  your  mis- 
tresses or  being  disobliging,  if  you  do  we'll  chastise 
yon  for  that."    The  great  idea  seemed  tj  be   to  let 
the  slaves  know  that  they  couldn't   be  permitted  to 
take  any  part  in  the  ceremonies  at  all.     Some  of  our 
Generals  felt  as  select  and  exclusive  on  that  point 
as  the  boy  did  at  his  mother's  funeral,  when  be  saw 
aneigbbor  boy  cry,  and  asked  him,  "What  business 
have    voa    to    cry    here?  this   ain't    none  of  your 
funeral."      What    was     the  result  of  thus  guard- 
ing    Rebel      property  ?      In    place    of     an      ele- 
ment   of    danger    and    weakness    to    the  Rebels, 
Slavery    became     an     element    of     strength,   and 
slaves    fed     and    clothed     rebellion.       While    the 
masters  were  away  in  the  field,  drilling  and  organ- 
izing and    putting  the  country  on  a  war  footing,  an 
unpaid  laboring  population,  of  at  least  two  millions — 
for  women  as  well   as  men  are  field  hands — were  at 
home   raising  /orn   and  pork,  and  making?  cloth,  or 
else  actiug    as  cooks,  and   teamsters,  or  digging  the 
trenches,  building    the  fortification?,  aye,  and  fight- 
ing   the    battles  of   the    Rebellion.    Does  anybody 
doubt  now   tha;  the  slaves  have  been  impressed  into 
the   military  service  of  the  Rebellion  ?    The  Rebel 
pickets  on   tbe  Rappahannock   are,  many  of  tbem, 
black  to-day.     Yet,  for  trying  to  turn  slives  against 
their  masters  even  now,  after  learning  by  bitter  ex- 
perience the   folly  of  the  past,  the  Government   is 
denounced,   and  charged  with   perverting  the  war 
int*  an  Abolition   raid.     And    men  eavtbis  who  pre- 
tend to   be  the  friends  of  our  soldiers  iu  tbe  field.     I 
wish      jou      could    all    stand,    as    I    have    stood, 


25 


among  the  fortifications  at  Yorktown. 
Whoever  visits  them  will  see  magnificent  digging ; 
he  will  see  a  city  builded  in  the  ground;  he  will  st-e 
a  maze  of  trenches  and  embankments  many  feet 
high,  doubled  with  gabions  and  finished  with  &  labor, 
Which  sets  one  counting  by  the  thousands  to  guess 
how  many  white  men  dug  their  graves  as  they  bur- 
rowed into  Yorktown.  I  would  like  to  look  upon 
the  man  who  dare  avow  that  be  feels  glad  to  know 
that  white  men  drooped  and  died  in  those  trenches, 
when  black  men,  used  to  the  heat  and  malaria, 
might  have  been  found  to  do  the  work  in  half  the 
time.  [Loud  cbeere.]  Yet  all  are  nicknamed 
fanatics  and  radicals  who  have  sought  to  get  some 
help  out  of  the  negro  race.  We  are  told  that  it 
would  be  a  great  calamity  to  free  the  slaves.  Why  ? 
Because  they  would  come  North.  Only  think  of 
that !  They'll  stay  South  in  Slavery,  and  when  they 
can  stay  and  have  freedom  too,  they  '11  come  North  ! 
I  believe  that  if  you  would  drain  the  North 
of  negroes,  you  have  only  to  establish  Freedom 
and  rights  for  them  South,  and  they  will  all  go 
there  as  naturally  as  a  duck  takes  to  water.  I  want 
the  North  emptied  of  its  black  population ;  I  want 
to  see  all  the  negroes  North  go  South,  and  am  will- 
ing to  have  them  hold  all  the  land  there  that's  left 
over  after  our  soldiers  who  want  to  stay,  and  the 
loyal  people  are  provided  for.  I  would  cast  out  the 
best  Rebel  in  the  South  to  make  room  for  the  worst 
loyal  man  in  the  North,  black  or  white,  and  I  should 
expect  a  trade  as  profitable  as  Prentice  said  another 
would  be  ;  he  said  if  the  Devil  should  change 
places  with  Jeff.  Davis,  hell  would  gain  as  much  m 
malignity  as  it  lost  in  taLnt.     [Cheers.  J 

It  is    an    easy  thing    to    find    a    stick    if    you 
want    to    flog    a  dog;     and    I    wonder  sometimes 
tbat     those     who     are     searching     for     excuses 
for  shirking    their  duty  are    not    more  ingenious. 
It     is     amazing     bow    small    a    thing    answers 
their  purpose.1    If  they  can  find  some  man  who  has 
been  arrested,  or  some   woman  of  high-flavored  rep- 
utation who  has   been  searched,  they  seem  to  think 
they  have  made  out  a   case  in  favor  of  leaving  the 
Government  to  perish.    For  the  madness  and  pique 
of  party  they  would  bury  their  nationality  under  the 
waves  of  revolution  and  leave  the  annals  of  free 
Government    like     a     bloody    buoy    on    the     6ea 
of     time,    warning    the    nations    of     the     earth 
to    keen     aloof     from     the     mighty    ruin.        If 
they  can  find  a  fraud  on  the  Government    which 
they    hav'nt    been    caught    in    themselves,    they 
are'  as  happy  as  a  boy  with  a  new  top.     [Qneers.] 
If  some  scamp  has  swindled  the  Government  in  the 
charter  of  a  steamboat,  or  the  manufacture  of  army 
clothing,  the  whole  Administration  is  held  to  blame 
for  that,  and  the  war  ought  to   stop  to  prevent 
frauds.    Frauds  are  plenty,   no  doubt;    there   are 
miscreants  flourishing  about  your  hotels  and  streets 
who  have  fattened  upon  the  agony  of  their  country, 
who  have  bought  shawls  at  Stewart's,  and  diamonds 
at  Ball   &.   Black's,  with  gains  made  by  smuggling 
felt  and  shoddy  iuto  the  coat    the  poor  soldier    re- 
lied upon  to  keep  him  warm  acid  dry  in  the  pelting 
storm.    There  are  men  who  would  bribe  some  twin 
rascal  to  give  them  a  contract  to  weave  the  winding 
sheet  of  their  country,  expecting  to  double  the  profit 
by  filling  with  shoddy  and  buying  the  insp  ctor  to 
let  it  pats.     [Groaus.]    They  are  not  "  radical"  men 
as  a  class,  however;  they  are  remarkably  free  from 
'•  fanaticism."  But  retribution  waits  for  each  one  of 
them,  toovertake  him  soouer  or  later,  and  meantime, 
in  place  of  stoppiog  the  war,  "  room  for  the  leper, 
room  !"       If  we    are  beset  by  thieves,  let  honest 
men  press  forward  and  close  the  war  at  once  instead 
of  protracting  it  to  £ive  thieves  a  longer  run.    Let 
us  make  the  best  and  not  the  worst  of  our  difficul- 
ties.    Let  every  man  see  carefully  where  his  influ- 
ence goes.    Let  him  look  to  his  selfish  interests  as 
well  as  his  patriotism.      Do  you  want  to  embolden 
England  to  fit  out  ocean  bandits  to  prey  upon  your 
commerce,   and  drive  all  freights  iuto  British  bot- 
toms ?    It  you  do,  you  have  ouly  to  tolerate  and 

support  and  vote  for  politicians  capable  of  titting 


down  here  in  New-York  and  intriguing  with  the 
British  Minister  for  the  humiliation  of  their  coun- 
try at  the  feet  of  foreign  powers.  Do  you  want  to 
breathe  new  life  and  hope  into  rebellion,  and  the  con- 
federutes  of  rebellion  at  home  and  abroad  ?  If  you 
do,  you  need  only  encourage  parties  and  newspa- 
pers, and  nun,  who  foment  divisions  here  and  pub- 
lish then:  to  the  world.  Do  you  want  to  retard  and 
prolong  tUe  war  till  foreign  quarrels  come  and  the 
energies  of  ihe  people  are  worn  out  7  If  you  do, 
you  have  only  to  give  ear  to  those  who  talk  about 
an  aimistice,  or  a  compromise,  or  a  convention  now. 
You  have  only  to  give  them  countenance,  and  some 
other  despot  will  land  an  army  in  Mexico,  and  slap 
the  Monroe  doctrine  m  our  faces  to  make  us  hang 
our  heads  the  lower,  when  we  remember  that  e'ght 
years  ago  four  American  Ministers  ostentatiously  as- 
sembled at  the  tomb  of  Charlemagne,  and  pro- 
claimed the  "  Cstend  Manifesto."  [Applause.] 
Do  you  want  to  bind  up  the  gashed  bosom  of  the 
nation  ?  do  you  want  to  restore  permanent  and  uni- 
versal repose?  do  you  want  to  reinstate  the  Govern- 
ment in  its  old  glory,  and  the  country  in  its  old 
prosperity?  If  you  do,  you  have  only  to  bend  all 
the  resources  we  possess  to  the  annihilation  of  the 
rebellion.  You  want  no  truce  till  Rebels  seek  it,  and 
they  will  seek  it  whenever  John  SlideJl  is  as  well 
convinced  that  the  North  is  united  as  he  is  now  tbat 
Europe  won't  interfere.  You  want  no  compromise 
but  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  as  your 
fathers  made  it.  That  is  the  ark  of  our  safety,  and 
"  except  we  abide  in  the  ship  we  cannot  be  saved." 
[Cheers.]  Let  us  cling  to  the  ship  which  our 
lathers  built  and  launched  in  darkness  and  tempests 
upon  the  tide  of  time;  let  us  take  heed  lest  she  drift 
upon  the  rocks  while  we  wrangle  among  ourselves; 
let  us  feel  that  our  crowning  infamy  would  be  to 
lose  the  vessel  from  brawls  among  the  crew.  Rather 
than  this  should  happen,  let  her  go  down  in  the 
shock;  rather  let  the  harpies  of  Europe  pluck  the 
eagle  of  the  sea;  rather  than  pulldown  her  colore 
ourselves, 

"  Nail  to  the  ma6t  htr  glorious  flag. 
Stretch  ever;  threadbare  sail, 
.And  give  her  to  the  God  ot'ttirms, 
The  HghtniDg  and  the  gale  !" 

Mr.  J.  W.  Mather  sang  a  song  composed  for  th» 
occasion  by  George  H.  Boker,  commencing: 

"  When  our  banner  went  down,  with  lt6  ancient  renown, 
Bttiaj  ed  and  degraded  by  treason. 
Did  they  tbinK,  as  it  fell,  what  a  passion  would  «well 
Our  hearts  when  we  asked  them  the  reason  V 

The  chorus,  being  taken  up  by  the  immense  throng, 
had  a  fine  effect. 

The  Chairman  next  introduced  the  Hon.  Geo.  W. 
Julian  of  Indiana  as  one  wno  would  show  tbem  how 
futile  was  tbe  tiope  of  the  Rebels  to  separate  West- 
ern men  from  the  Union. 

Mr.  Julian's  speech,  which  was  a  scathing  rebuke 
to  Secessionists,  and  to  those  who  countenanced 
them  at  the  North,  was  received  with  vehement  ap- 
plause. 

He  was  followed  by  Mr.  W.  J.  A.  Fuller,  who 
held  the  attention  of  the  audience  until  the  evening 
shadows  began  to  fall,  when  an  adjournment  was 
carried. 


STAND    NO.    5. 

Speeches  of  the  Hon.  Daniel  S.  Dickinson, 
Senator  Wilson,  Gen.  Nye,  Prof.  John 
A.  Porter,  C» .  W.  Elliott,  John  C.  Mont- 
gomery, and  Col.  Nugent. 

This  stand  was  located  nearly  in  front  of  the 
Everett  House,  on  the  north  side  of  Union  Square, 
and  had  a  fine  display  of  banners  and  mottoes,  and 
the  Stars  and  Stripes  floating  proudly  over  it.  On 
three  sides  were  the  following  mottoes:  "Oar  Coun- 
try, Now  and  Forever;"  "  Pledged  to  Maintain  the 
National  Unity,"  and  "  Loyalty."    Two  large  ban- 


26 


ners  were  at  the  corner*,  one  inscribed  "One  Flag, 
one  Country,  one  Destiny, "  and  the  other,  "The 
Loyal  National  League— Pledged  to  Maintain  the 
National  Unity.  1.  mg  prior  to  4  o'clock  the  space 
in  front  of  the  stand  was  filled  with  a  dense  crowd 
— one  niues  of  heads  nearly  as  far  us  the  eye  could 
see. 

r  musk  by  the  band,  Mr.  Charles  Bitlir 
called   the   i  to  order,  and  a  most  impressive 

and  fervent  prayer  was  offered  by  the  Rev.  l>r.  Bkl- 
William  T.  Bi.udgett  "read  the  call  for  the 
meeting  and  the  list  of  officers  appointed,  and  a  let- 
ter from  Muj. -lien.  Dix,  which  was  received  with 
load  cheers.  Dispensing  with  tlie  reading  of  the 
resolutions,  Mr.  Butler  tbeu  introduced  the  Hon. 
Damel  S.  Dl<  kinm'.n,  who  Was  received  with  tu 
niultuous  applause. 
BPEECB     "I       INK    HON.    DANIEL     S.     DICKIN<"'\. 

Mb.  President  am>  Ladies  and  Genti.emin: 
It  is  almost  two  years  since  I  attended  a  meeting  in 
this  very  square  to  discuss  public  affairs  and  the  con- 
dition o^  the  country.  It  is  two  years  this  dav  since 
our  national  flag,  our  great  emblem  of  hope  and 
promiee — the  Stars  and  Stripes — was  insulted  by  an 
infamous  conspiracy  and  an  infernal  Rebellion. 
[Loud  applause.]  1  well  remember  when  the  Dews 
reached  the  city.  It  was  a  dark  and  fearful  night — 
the  storm  was  descending  in  its  awful  density,  well 
worthy  of  such  an  occasion  as  that.  The  fiend  spirit 
of  the'storm  clapped  his  hands,  and  it  seemed  as 
though  the  evil  genius  of  destruction  was  brooding 
over  us.  Two  years  have  now  elapsed,  and  the  sun 
is  shining  genially  upon  us,  the  air  is  warm,  the 
perms  are  shooting,  the  buds  are  swelling,  the  lawns 
are  green,  the  birds  are  singing,  and  the  popular 
heart  is  redolent  with  hope  and  buoyant  with  prom- 
ise. [Loud  cheers.]  Rebellion  etill  exists,  but  how 
coes  it  exist  ?  Charleston — the  hotbed  of  secession. 
the  foul  point  and  nucleus  of  Rebellion,  the  cess- 
pool of  conspiracv — [Lond  cheers  and  laugoter] — the 
heart  of  all  ttjat  is  infamous  and  wicked  in  this  mat- 
ter— if  she  has  not  already  fallen,  it  is  but  a  question 
of  time.  [Great  applause  and  cheers.]  And  the 
owls  and  ravens  who  nave  croaked  for  blood  will 
soon  know  that  ashes  and  desolation  cover  the  spot 
that  has  so  long  menaced  the  integrity  of  this  Union  ! 
'[Loud  applause.]  It  is  said  to  be  tne  heart  of  this 
great  movement,  and  so  it  is ;  and  the  foul  and 
slimy  blood  it  has  sent  forth  through  the  political 
vein's,  had  it  not  been  resisted  by  loyal  health, 
would  have  corrupted  the  whole  mass.  But,  thank 
God,  from  the  time  our  Stars  and  Stripes  were  in- 
sulted, from  ttie  time  our  sol  iiers  were  butchered  in 
Baltimore,  while  marching  to  the  defense  of  the 
National  Capital — from  that  time  to  the  present,  the 
loyal  feeling  has  been  abroad,  and  it  will  vindicate 
itself  and  prove  the  integrity  of  the  loyal  people. 
[Applause.]  Bat  he  would  not  discuss  the  causes — 
he  would  take  the  question  a*  he  found  it.  When 
this  Rebellion  was  organized,  the  spirit  of 
party  was  hushed  aw-tv,  honorable  men 
and  all  came  forward  to  vindicate  the  integrity  of 
the  nation  and  prove  themselves  worthy  descendants 
of  Revolutionary  sires.  [Loud  cheers.]  He  stood 
upon  taat  ground,  and  he  defied  all  the  artillery  save 
the  artillery  of  Heaven  to  dislodge  him.  [Great  ap- 
plause; "That's  it.  ]  Bat  there  were  a  few  miser- 
able politicians  who  took  unto  themselves  seven 
spirits  more  wicked  than  themselves,  and  entered  in 
and  dwelt  there,  and  the  last  state  of  politics  was 
•worse  thau  the  first.  [Laughter.]  There  are  three 
classes  of  those  who  menace  the  Government.  One 
class  have  arms  in  their  hands;  another  class  have 
politics  in  their  heads,  and  another  class  with  treason 
in  their  hearts  [loud  cheers  and  laughter!,  and  they 
are  all  acting  together.  [Cheers  and  applause.]  He 
cursed  them  all  as  one,  and  on  them  all  invoked 
maledictions.  He  denounced  them  in  the  name  of 
the  Union  and  Constitution  and  of  free  Government. 
He  was  a  Democrat  of  the  straightest  sect,  but  he 
did  not  inquire  who  administered  this  Government. 
[Cheers.]    It  will  be  time  to  inquire  that  when  this 


Rebellion  is  over.  Liiten  not  to  him  who  cries,  '  L  :■ 
here!'     and    "Lo   there!  "and  attempts  to  excite 
party  prejudices,  i-nd  to  climb  up  uie  filthy  and  elip- 
pery  stepetones  of  party  discipline.  Inquire  on h 
is  for    I  is  country — who    is    on    the  Lord's"  side. 

ant  men  to-day  that  will  put  down  this  Rebel- 
lion: we  want  men  whose  material  and  moral  muscle 
shall    stand  out     like    wail    cord,    and  who   will 

heir  lives  for  their  country.  [Cheerr.j  He 
nad  receutly  heard  of  a  great  political  cout. 
between  Lord  Lyons  and  some  individuals  who  had 
crawled  into  the  Democratic  liou-skin.  As  far  as 
Lord  Lyons  was  concerned,  representing  a  Govern- 
ment who  considers  government  and  conspiracy  as 
the  same,  who  called  ih'>se  who  stole  and  those  who 
were  stolen  from  "oellisferents"  alike,  who  fit  out 
I irates  to  cruise  not  merely  on  the  commerce  of  the 
United  States,  but  of  the  worl  i.  He  did  verv  well. 
[  Laughter.  1  But  against  these  2*J0s  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party,  who  are  conspiring  against  the  peace 
of  the  Union,  he  bad  no  res|>ect.  They  are  Demo- 
crats. Andrew  Jackson  was  a  Democrat.  He 
wished  they  would  put  themselves  into  communi- 
cation with  his  spirit  for  a  little  while,  and  if  the  old 
gentleman  carries  his  cane  yet,  there  would  be  s;>me 
rapping.  [Laughter.  A  voice — "He  would  hit 
Fernando  Wood  on  the  head."]  il  •  would  say  once 
for  all  now,  and  meauiug  what  he  said,  and  speaking 
in  italics  and  capitals,  that  for  pure  Snd  unalloyed 
rascality,  double-distilled  villany,  there  has  not  been 
anything  recorded  since  the  days  of  Pontius  Pilate 
as  infamous  as  that.  [Cheers.]  Who  are  the  indi- 
viduals ?  [A  voice — "Wood."]  Before  he  went 
home  he  was  going  to  look  in  the  Rogues'  Gallery 
for  their  portraits.  [Cheers.]  He  was  told  they 
were  Democrats.  Tney  are  demon-crats.  [Great 
applause  and  laughter.]  They  connived  with  the 
representative  of  a  foreign  Government  for  the 
destruction  of  their  country,  and  their  names  shall 
stand  high  on  the  roll  of  infamy !  When  the 
Rebellion  broke  out  traitors  had  stolen'  our  arms  and 
ships,  but  now  we  have  raised  an  army  that  makes 
the  earth  tbrob  with  its  tread.  The  hope  of  the 
Rebellion  for  foreign  recognition  is  gone.  Great 
Britain  thinks  she  can  see  quite  as  well  what  is  go- 
ing on  at  a  respectable  distance — [laughter] — and 
Prance  has  enough  elee  to  attend  to  Gieat  Britain 
did  hope  that  our  Government  might  be  destroyed. 
Her  rott'-u  aristocracy,  that  leans  np  against  her 
public  and  her  public  debt  against  them,  bke  two 
drunken  >uen  supporting  each  other — [Laughter  and 
cheers!— and  both  of  them  will  fall  when  one  gives 
way  a  mile;  they  bate  us,  but  John  Bright  and 
Cobden  and  the  masses  are  in  our  favor.  [Loud 
cheers  and  applause.]  The  only  hope  of  Rebellion 
now  rests  in  the  division  and  disloyalty  at  the 
North,  on  secret  societies  and  parties  inaugurated 
to  aid  Rebellion  under  the  sacred  name  of  Democ- 
i  acy.  They  tell  us  we  must  fold  our  hands  and  hang 

te  olive  branch  of  peace.  He  was  tor  the  olive 
branch  himself,  but  be  wanted  it  should  be  a 
Etout  tree,  and  about  eight  feet  from  the 
ground — [Great  laughter  and  cheers] — and  have  a 
stout  rope  hanging  lrom  the  end  of  it.  [Renewed 
;.pplause.]  That  is  the  way  to  treat  the  leaders  of 
this  Rebellion.  [Cries  of  "  That's  it"  andeheers.j 
There  can  be  no  compromise  now.  He  is  a  traitor 
to  his  tountry,if  he  is  a  man  of  ordinary  intelligence, 
who  attempts  anything  of  the  kind.  This  glorious 
meeting  convinced  him  that  the  Rebellion  was 
doomed.  [Cheers.]  But  these  men  are  afraid  that 
Slavery  may  suffer  in  this  war  for  the  Constitution. 
He  would  "not  go  out  of  the  way  to  get  rid  of 
Slavery,  bat  you  might  as  well  expect  to  retain 
the  wild  game  in  a  country  after  you  have 
cleared  it  all  off  as  to  retain  Slavery  after 
the  war  of  Revolution  has  passed  over  it.  [Great 
applause.]  The  Secessionists  have  done  more 
in  one  year  than  the  Abolitionists  have  done  in  30. 
[Laughter  and  cheers.]  The  old  Greek  Xenophemes, 
who  believed  in  transmigration,  requested  his  friend 
to  cease  beating  a  dog,  for  be  thought  he  recognized 
the  voice  of  a  deceased  friend  in  its  how], and  so  wise 


27 


men  don't  want  Slavery  disturbed  becauee  they 
think  they  recognize  the  howl  of  a  deceased  friend 
in  it.  [Great  applause  and  laughter.]  He  would 
object  to  Slavery  the  same  as  be  would  object  to 
having  a  powder  house  in  New-York  City;  because 
it  is  liable  at  any  time  to  blow  ueall  to  pieces.  [Loud 
cheering.]  The  ocean  may  cast  off  her  mire  and 
dirt  in  the  mighty  heavings  and  agitations  of  her 
bosom ;  the  lightnings  may  flash  athwart  the  shy;  the 
thunders  may  war  in  the  distance,  and  the  winds 
may  bowl,  but  the  sun  of  this  morn  will  rise  again 
with  the  promise  of  a  fair  day,  and  God's  children 
will  stand  upon  the  great  principle  of  equality  in 
this  Western  Hemisphere.  [Tremendous  applause 
and  three  hearty  cheers  for  the  speaker.] 

After  an  interlude  of  music  by  the  band,  Mr. 
Butler  introduced  the  Hon.  Henry  Wilson  of  Mass. 
who  was  received  with  three  rousing  cheers. 

SPEECH  OP   THE  HON.  HENRY  WILSON   OF   MAS- 
sachusetts. 

•    Mr.  Chairman  and  Fellow-Citizens  of  New- 
York:    The  banners  of  more  than  a  thousand  regi- 
ments of  loyal  men  of  oar  country  are  to-day  wav- 
ing in  the  beams  of  yonder  rolling  sun  in  the  land 
of  Rebellion.    Three  quarters  of  a  million  of  our 
countrymen,  of  our  neighbors,  of  our  friends,  are 
bearing  the  banners  of  their  country  to-day  on  the 
soil  of  the  Rebel  States.    Thev  are  around  Charles- 
ton [cheerB] ;  on  the  shores  of  North  Carolina;  with 
Banks  near  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi;  with  Grant 
around  Vicksburg ;    with  Rosecrans  around  the  im- 
mortal field  of  Murfreesboro    [loud   cheers] ;    with 
Fighting  Joe  Hooker  on  the  banks  of  the  Rappahan- 
nock.    Your  voices,  the  beating  of  your  loyal  hearts, 
will  reach  them ;    and  as  they  look  the  foes  of  tbeir 
country  in  tbe  lace,  they  will  be   stronger  because 
the  men  of  New-York  are  behind  them.     [Cheers.] 
Our  brave  soldiers  in  tbe  field  in  the   campaign  of 
Gen.  Stoneman,  one  of  our  bravest  and  truest  sol- 
diers, say  that  while  they  hate  tbe  Rebel  in  front, 
they  despise  the  traitor  in  the  rear  I  cheers],  and  they 
would  delight  to  hang  the  one  as  well  as  to  shoot 
the  other.     That  is  the  sentiment  of  three-fourths  of 
a  million  of  brave  men  who  are  bearing  tbe  banners 
of  the  Republic.     The  gentleman  who  preceded  me 
said  to  you,  and  he  said  truly,  that  the  hopes  of  the 
Rebel  chiefs  were  in  the  division  of  the  people  of  the 
loyal  States.    It  was  my  fortune — my  sad  fortune — 
to  sit  with  those  Rebel  leaders  in  the  session  of  '60 
and '61.    Then  they  were  preparing  the  country  for 
Revolution.     Day  after  day  we  sat  in  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States — in  the  House  of  Representatives 
— and  saw  these  Rebel  leaders  plot  for  the  overthrow 
of  the  Republic;  and  I  say  to  you  to-day,  gentlemen, 
that  tbeir  hopes  rested  upon  two  things — one,  the  in- 
tervention of  England  or  France  through  the  power 
of  King  Cotton,and  tbe  other,  division  in  the  North- 
ern States.  They  believed  that  the  City  of  New- York 
would  raise  the  cry  of  "  bread  or  blood  "—they  be- 
lieved that  the  loyal  men  hastening  to  the  defense  of 
the  menaced  capital  would   be  smitten  down  on  the 
pavements  of  the  City  of  New- York.    Jefferson  Da- 
vis, in  the  session  of  1850,   said  to  me  on  the  floor  of 
the  Senate  that  he  was  assured,  in  the  language  of 
one  of  his  friends  in  the  North,  that  if  this  contest 
came  to  blows  they  would  throttle  us  in  oar  tracks. 
But,  gentlemen,  you  all  remember  that  when,  two 
years  ago,  the  banners  of  our  country  went  down 
beneath  the  consuming  fires  of  the  batteries  upon 
Fort  Sumter,  that  the  people  rose  in  their  majesty, 
as  one  man,  for  the  support  of  the  country.  [Cheers.] 
But  you  remember  also,  with   what  amazement  the 
Rebel  chiefs  received  the  intelligence  of  that  uprising 
of  the  freemen  of  the  North.    Russell  tells  us,  in  his 
Diary,  that  he  found  everywhere  in  the  South  the 
greatest  amazement  that  the  people  of  the  North 
were  united  to  uphold  the  cause  of  our  country. 
But,  gentlemen,  we  know   while  the  people  of  this 
country,  the  masses,  rose  to  sustain  their  Govern- 
ment ;  to  sustain  the  cause  of  human  liberty  in  the 
Western  World,  that  there  were  men  who  bowed  to 
public  opinion,  but  whose  hearts  were  black  with 


sympathy  with   traitors.     ["  That's  so."]     Misfor- 
tunes came  upon  us,   death  entered  almost  all  our 
dwellings,  our  brave   men   were   smitten  down  on 
many  battle-fields,  trials  came  upon  tbe  people,  our 
hearts  throbbed  sadly  and  heavily,  and  then  it  was 
that  these  men  the  Rebel  chiefs  relied  upon  to  come 
to  the  rescue  and  save  them — to  bathe  our  streets  in 
blood  and  overthrow  the  Government  of  the  coun- 
try— began  to  demand  a  peace  that  was  to  blot  this 
nation  lorever  from  the  annals  of  mankind.     But, 
gentlemen,  thanks  to  God,tbanks  to  the  people  of  this 
country  !  tbey  are  rising  again,  and  Copnerheadism 
is  slinking  away.    The  heel  of  tbe  Amencan  people 
is    pressing   that   serpent's  head.  ■  Aid  now,  gen- 
tlemen, I  say  to  you  to-night  that  while  the  Rebel 
chiefs  gi^e  up  the  cause  of  foreign  intervention,  they 
yet  rely  on  the  secret  orders  of  the  Knights  of  the 
Golden   Circle;  tney  rely  upon  men    who  preach 
peace,  when  there  can  be  no  peace,  with   tbe  salva- 
tion of    our  country.     [Cheers.  1     But,    gentlemen, 
my  faith  is  strong — strong  in  the  people    of  the 
United  States,   strong  in    the  progress    of   human 
events,  strong  in  Democratic  institutions,  and  strong 
in    that   God  that    rules   over  the  affairs  of  men. 
[Cheers.]     The  cause  in  which  we  are  engaged  is  the 
cause  of  national  unity,  and  the  life  of  this  nation; 
the  existence  of  this  INorth  American  Republic,  is  at 
issue;  and  that  is  not  all,  the   cause  of  human  lib- 
erty in  America  is  at  issue — tbe  cause  of  toiling  mil- 
lions of  the  North   American  Republic.    There  is  an 
influence  on  earth  that  elevates  and  adorns  human 
character  that  is  with  us  and  fighting  for  us  in  this 
great  battle  in  which  we  are  engaged.    There  is  not 
amanwto  cannot  take  the  cause  of  our  country 
horn*  with  bim   to-night  and  read  his  Bible,  and  on 
his  bended   kDees  invoke  the   blessing  of  Almighty 
God  upon  the  cause  of  our  common  country.     It  is  a 
cause  that  a  man  may  be  proud  to  toil  for,  labor  for, 
and,  if  need  be,  proudly  to  die  for.     [Cheers.]     Up 
in  tne  interior   of  this  State  a  gray-headed  old  sol- 
dier lay  dying.    In  his  last  moments,  when  life  was 
flickering,  he  called  for  a  glass  of  wine,  and,  holding 
it  up,   said:  "God  bless  my  country,   the   United 
States  of  America !"    and  the    brave    old    soldier 
passed  away   with  the  noble  and  pious   sentiment 
upon  his  lips.    There  is  not  a  man  in  America  that 
may  not  invoke  these  utterances  of  Gen.   Sumner, 
and  ask  God  to  bless  our  country,  the  United  States 
of   America.     [Cheers  and  the   boom   of   cannon.] 
We  should  support  the   Government  of  our  country, 
not  because  it  is  a  Republican  Administration,  for  I 
do  not  ask  it.     I  would  support  a  Democratic  Ad- 
ministration,  because  my  duty  to  my  country  de- 
mandedit.      ["Bravo,   bravo."      Cheers.]      Bat  I 
am  proud  to  know  that  they   are  giving  to  this  Ad- 
ministration all  their  moral    support  and    all  the 
votes    they  have  to  give.      On  the  Committee  of 
Military     Affairs     in     the     Senate     there     were 
four   Republicans  and    three    Democrats,    and   of 
6,825   names     that    passed    before    that     Commit- 
tee    since      the     war    commenced,    there    never 
has    been    a    party  division    in    that    Committee. 
[Loud  applause.]     We  should  forget  all  partisanship 
and  bury  all  party  feelings  deeper  than  ever  plummet 
sounded  [cheers],  and  go  for  our  country,  our  whole 
country,  and  nothing   but  our  country.       [Great  ap- 
plause and  cheers.]      He  hailed  these  Loyal  Leagues 
springing  up  over  the  country,  and  all  should  cooperate 
to  fire  thb  hearts  and  nerve  the  arms  of  our  brave 
soldiers.    [Load  applause]     All  party  conflicts  and 
organizations  dwarf  and  sink  down  in  the  presence 
of  the  mighty  events  which  are  upon  us.     The  high- 
est and  loftiest  duty  ever  committed  to  men  is  com- 
mitted to  us  now,  and  that  duty  is  to  save  our  coun- 
try, to  preserve  the  life  of  our  nation.  [A  cry—"  We 
will."]    We  will  do  it.    I  entertain  not  a  shadow  of 
a  doubt  of  the  triumph  of  our  cause.     [Applause.]     I 
never  have  doubted  amid  deteat  and  darkness.     [A 
cannon  boom.]    I  have  had  undoubting  faith  that  this 
people  would  rise  ;  that  they  would  stand  by  their 
country  ;  that  they  would  cultivate  patriotism  and 
toleration  ;  and  above  all,  that  endurance  that  wins 
and  triumphs  in  the  end.     I  have  seen  more  enthn- 


28 


eiasm  in  other  days  than  in  this,  but  we  have  now 
come  to  the  fobcr  second  thonght  which  is  bated 
opon  the  seniinient  and  the  heart,  upon  the  convic- 
tion |adgment,  upon  the  aspiratioi  s  and  the 
aonlcfi'  •  It  is  the  result  of  reflection — it 
comes  from  iral,  and  it  will  live  and  last,  and  carry 
us  glorious  I  v  and  triampl  an'ly  through.  [('.  r.-at  ar- 
plaasfij  iintl  three  cheers  and  a  tiger  for  .Mr.  Wilson.] 
-  Gen,  Jamkb  \V.  Nil  was  next  introduced  to  the 
immense  audience,  who  welcomed  him  with  loud  a;  - 
plan 

SPEECH  «)F  GEM,   RYE. 

He  was  no  stranger  to  them,  and  he  felt  quite  at 
home  in  the  old  city  of  New-York.  [Applause.] 
He  had  teen  her  thousands  marshalled  Before,  but 
they  were  never  gathered  en  a  more  eventful  oc- 
casion. He  stood  in  the  National  Capitol  when  the 
news  came  that  Fort  Sumter  had  been  fired  upon,  and 
he  made  a  covenant  that  he  would  never  lay  down 
bis  arms  till  the  glory  of  that  old  flag  was  redeemed. 

4 Great  applause.]     When  he  went  to  bis  new  home, 
,000  mil<  s  away,  he  mtt  there  Lis  old  acquaintance, 
the  Stars  and  Sinoee — [Cheers] — and  there  it  should 
float  forever.     [Great  applause.]     Whatever  may  be 
the  fate  of  the  Allan  ic  slope,   there  shall  be  one 
Switzerland   in  Ameiica.      [Loud    Cheers.]     Tney 
would  bai  ricade  their  mountain  fastnesses  and  the 
old  flag  should  float  there  forever.  [Great  applause.] 
The  stars  are  emblematical  of  the  eyes  of  a  watch- 
ful  and  vigilant  people,   and  the  stripes   are  em- 
blematical of  the  tribute   our  fathers  paid  to  Great 
Britain  in  two  wars.     [Tremendous  applause.]     He 
thought  this  Rebellion  a  good  thing.     The  spirit  of 
'76  had  died  out.    It   needed  a  new  regeneration — a 
new  baptism — and  that  baptism  needed  to  be  of 
blood,  and  we  have  got  it.    Though  it  may  clothe 
our  families  in  the  habiliments  of  mourning,  yet  the 
glorious  future  will  be  a  recompense  for  all  of  our 
sacrifices.     We   will  have  a  peace  that  will  be  per- 
manent. •  Rebellion  at  the  South  and  Copperhesaism 
at  the  North  will  be  seen   walking  two  by  two  in 
the  political  Potter's  field  as  the  pairs  weot  into  the 
Ark,  and  there  they  will   be  buried  foiever.     [Tre- 
mendous applause.]     And  they  ought  to  be.     [Ap- 
plause.   Cries   of    "Good!"    "Amen!"]      We  are 
told  that  this  rebellion  cannot  be  put  down  by  arms; 
bat  these  Rebels   have  chosen  the   arbitrament  of 
bullets  instead  of  ballots,  and  we  will  beat  them  at 
tba»..     [Great  applause,  "  We  will !"]     And  the  man 
is  blinoer  than  a  meadow  mole  and  deafer  than  an 
adder  that  can  see  anything  else   than  our  fioal  tri- 
umph iu  this  struggle.     [Loud  cheers.]    They  tell 
ns  we  shall   be  burdened  with  heavy  taxes;  but 
when  he  saw  a  man  with  a  pencil  behind  his  ear 
figuring  up  how  much  he  can  muke  by  this  war  he 
is  a  traitor.     [Great  applause,  and  cries  of  "  Good !" 
"good!"    "  That's  so."]      He  wanted   to  see  men 
inquiring  what  sacrifices  they  could   make  for  their 
country.     [Loud  cheers.]      He   had  a  kind  of  in- 
spiration that  to-day,  and  at  this  hour,  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  floated  over  Fort  Sumter   [tremendous  ap- 
plause], gold-dealers  and  Copperheads  to  the  con- 
trary.    [Ucuewed  apj  Luse  aud  liughter].     Or  if  it 
does  not  now,  it  soon  will.  [Loud  cheers.]  He  knew 
one  thing  thai  Copperheads  oidn'i  know,  anl  thank 
God  they  knew  a  great  many  tbiogs  he  did  not. 
[Renewed  laughter  and  applause.]    He  knew  enough 
to  love  this  country  with  as   undying  a  love  as  a  son 
tor  the  mother  that  bore  him — [great  applause] — and 
he  did  n't  know  enough    to   plot  treason  against  it. 
[Renewed  applause.]     He  believed  that  all  hell  and 
iiebeldom  combined  could  not   destroy  this  country. 
[Loud  cheers.)     Meu  of  New- York  !  are  you  ready 
to  maintain  tLis  Union?     [tries  of  "  Yes,"  "yes/' 
"  we  will.'  ]     Then  I  will  go  West  and  report  that 
New-York  is  all  right.     [Great  cheers.]     If  there  is 
a  man  who  Las  not  faith  enough  to  believe  the  coun- 
try must  succeed,  let  him  go  among  the  Copperheads. 
[Great  laughter  and  applause.]     A   more   dreadful 
fate  awaits  all  thete  classes  of  Rebels  than  that  of 


the  falling  avalanche;  theirs  will  be  an  eternal, 
abiding'  sleep,  and  one  would  donH  whether,  in  the 
\vi  dom  "t  God,  t  ey  \vi  1  be  disturhel  in  the  morn- 
ing of  the  resurrection — [loud  cheers  and  langbter] — 
on  legs  it  is  to  consign  them  to  a  deeper  hell.  [Great 
applause.  "1  hey  will  file  off  to  the  left  then.-'] 
Fell  iw-dtizens,  I  thank  yon  for  this  hearing.  ["(.!" 
on,"  "  go  on."]  It  is  all  very  easy  to  say  "  go  on," 
bat  where  is  the  wind  to  come  from  1  [Great  laugh- 
ter. 1  He  had  beensj  e  iking  at  another  stand,  and  was 
tired.  But.  he  would  go  on  a  pilgrimage  from  the 
heaving  billows  of  the  Atlantic  to  the  quiet  waters 
of  the  Pacific  to  see  restored  on  this  continent  that 
glorious  and  benignant  peace  that  wi  1  bring  with  it 
one  country,  ono  people — and  that  we  will  have. 
He  would  now  ask  them  to  give  three  cheers  for  the 
old  flag.  [Given  heartily,  and  three  cheers  for  the 
speaker.] 

Prof.  John  A.  Porter  of  Yale  College  was  next 
introduced.  He  said  to-day  he  was  not  ashamed  to 
confess  himself  a  citizen  of  Connecticut.  [Cheers, 
and  three  rousing  cheers  for  Connecticut.]  Copper- 
beadism  had  made  its  strike  there,  and  been  tram- 
pled into  the  earth.  [Loud  cheers.]  The  people  of 
Connecticut  and  New- York  are  prepared  to  stand 
by  the  flag  nntil  it  shall  float  in  triumph  over  all 
this  continent.     [Loud  cheers.] 

SPEECH  OF  JOHN  C.  MONTGOMERY. 
Mr.  John  C.  Montgomery  was  introduced,  and 
related  to  the  audience  a  story  of  Mason,  with  whom 
he  had  been  acquainted.  Mason,  on  one  occasion, 
on  beir.g  introduced  by  Mr.  Montgomery  as  his  Dem- 
ocratic friend,  said:  "  Mr.  Montgomery,  I  wish  you 
wonld  introduce  me,  not  as  your  Democratic  but_  as 
your  Republican  friend,  for,'  by  G — d,  I  don't  think 
Democracy  is  constitutional." 

SPEECH  OF  G.  W.   ELLIOT. 

Mr.  G.  W.  Elliot,  a  merchant  from  London, 
was  next  introduced.  He  said  that  the  real  true, 
honest  heart  of  the  English  people  sympathized  with 
the  Americans  in  this  struggle.  [A  voice — "  Can't 
see  it."]  The  aristocracy  and  the  would-be  aristoc- 
racy mi::ht  desire  to  see  this  Government  destroyed. 
England  is  not  eaeily  moved,  and  it  takes  a  long 
time  to  :nove  the  great  masses,  but  the  great  popular 
heart  o:  that  country  sympathizes  thoroughly  with 
the  No.  ih  in  this  struggle.  He  believed  this  te  be 
the  greatest  nation  on  earth,  and  engaged  iu  one  of 
the  greatest  struggles  the  earth  ever  saw.  Their 
success  would  not  only  be  a  victory  here,  but  a  tri- 
umph for  Freedom  all  over  the  world.  [Loud 
cheers.]  He  bad  always  said  that  the  great  City  of 
New- York  was  loyal,  aid  if  he  was  told  they  were 
in  favor  ot  Slavery  and  Secession  he  said  that  was  a 
lie !  [Cheers  and  applause.  A  voice — "  Go  on;  give 
it  to 'on  ;  but  The  Louden  Times  won't  print  your 
speech."    Laughter.] 

SPEECH  OF  COL.   NUGENT,   OF  THE   "69TH." 
Mr.  Butler  then  introduced  Col.  Nugent,  who 
was  received  with  three  rousing  cheers.    He  said: 

Mr  Friends:  I  did  not  come  here  to  make  a 
speech,  but  as  a  epectator,  to  look  on.  But  I  am 
very  proud  to  see  such  a  spirit  of  patriotism  as  I 
have  seen  here  this  afternoon;  but  I  would  be 
prouder  to  see  one  half  of  you  down  in  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac,  to  fill  up  the  broken  regiments  there. 
[Loud  cheers.]  I  see  a  great  many  hero  1  would 
like  as  recruits  lor  the  gallant  b9th.  [A  voice — 
"  Give  me  $1,000  and  1  will  go;"  hisses  and  cries 
of  "Copperhead."]  We  don't  want  you,  Sir;  we 
want  true  meu  and  volunteers.  [Cheers  ]  Put, 
g-utlemeu,  I  am  not  accustomed  to  public  speaking 
and  do  not  leel  much  at  home  here;  put  me  at  the 
head  of  my  reyimeut  and  I  am  at  home.  [Great 
applause.] 


29 


After  sorce  remarks  by  F.  E.  Lambert  the  vast 
audience  dispersed,  the  band  playing  "Old  Hund- 
red," and  other  music,  and  the  crowd  giving  three 
tremendous  cheers  for  the  Union. 


STAND    No.    G. 

Speeches  by  David  Dudley  Field,  Gen.  Nye, 
George  W.  Curtis,  S.  F.  Chittenden, 
James  A.  Briggs,  Thomas  Parsons,  Gen. 
Crawford,  Theodore  Tilton,  and  others. 

Stand  No.  6  was  located  in  the  north-ea6tern  angle 
of  Union  Square.  It  bore  the  motto,  "A  common 
Union  to  maintain  the  power,  glory,  and  integrity  of 
the  Nation."  Salutes  pealed  from  the  lips  of  artille- 
ry, and  at  about  4  o'clock  Wiegand's  band  struck  up 
the  Grand  March  from  "  Le  Propbete." 

Wm.  E.  Dodge,  esq.,  presided,  and  in  opening 
the  meeting  said  they  were  resolved  not  to  cease  do- 
ing till  we  should  be  a  united  and  happy  people. 

Prayer  was  then  offered  by  the  Rev.  Thomas  E. 
Vermilye,  D.  D. 

The  list  of  officers  of  the  meeting,  tbe  address,  and 
the  resolutions  were  read  by  John  Austin  Ste- 
vens, jr.,  and  adep'ed.    After  muric  by  the  band, 

David  Dudley  Field,  esq.,  was  introduced,  and 
spoke  as  follows: 

SPEECH  OF  DAVID  DUDLEY  FIELD. 
Fellow-citizens:  If  I  were  asked  to  express  in 
three  words  what  appears  to  me  the  greatest 
needs  of  the  country  at  this  hour,  I  should 
say  unity,  courage,  constancy.  Without  unity,  our 
great  preponderating  force  dwindles  into  insignifi- 
cance. Twenty-three  millions  wield  undoubtedly 
enormous  power,  equal  to  the  subjagation  of  all  the 
Rebels  in  the  rebellious  States.  But  if  the  twenty- 
ttiree  millions  were  made  up  of  thirteen  millions 
loyal  and  ten  d  sloyal,  the  latter  might  neutralize  an 
equal  number  of  the  former,  and  the  force  of  tne 
twenty-three  millions  would  really  be  repres ented 
by  three  millions.  So  of  greater  or  less  proportions. 
We  are,  therefore,  under  a  necessity,  moral  and  po- 
litical, to  labor  with  all  our  might  to  produce  agree- 
ment among  our  people.  The  nearer  we  can  come 
to  absolute  unanimity  the  better.  To  that  end,  we 
must  lay  aside  minor  differences,  and  confine  our- 
selves to  the  few  essential,  fundamental  political 
truths  and  rules  of  conduct  tbat  have  relation  only 
to  the  overthrow  of  the  Rebellion.  By  these 
means,  and  these  alone,  shall  we  be  enabled  to  col- 
lect aud  use  all  our  resources,  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  power,  and  the  integrity  of  the  nation,  in  its 
whole  territorial  extent.  But  without  courage 
numbers  will  avail  us  little.  It  should  seem  strange 
that  an  exhoration  to  courage  can  be  necessary 
amoEg  the  children  of  our  fathers.  Our  people  have 
won  tbeir  way  by  courage  to  their  present  expanded 
greatness.  From  tte  time  when  our  fathers  landed 
on  these  shores,  through  all  the  hardships  of  settle- 
ment, through  poverty  and  want,  through  perils  from 
Indian  savages,  through  colonial  wars,  through  the 
war  for  independence,  through  the  long  period  of 
uncertainty  and  depression  which  ensued  through 
the  political  crisis  which  resulted  in  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Constitution,  the  war  of  1812,  aud  the 
war  with  Mexico,  courage  b88  been  almost  a  syno- 
nym fur  the  American  character.  But  there  is  a 
moral  as  well  as  a  physical  courage,  which  shrinks 
from  no  sacrifices.  looks  unappalled  upon 
reverses,  hears  with  equanimity  of  delays  and 
mistakes,  and  cairies  itself  cheerfully,  lolti- 
ly,  through  all  vicissitudes.  Tuis  kind  of 
courage,  not  less  than  tbat  which  storms  for- 
tresses und  leads  columns  in  the  field,  is  needed  by 
us  now;  a  courage  which  rejects  the  counsel*  of  the 
timid  and  time-serving,  spurns  every  suggestion  of 
inglorious  peace,  sends  none  but  encouraging  words 


to  our  soldiers  in  the  ranks,  and  makes  ready  to 
send  more  soldiers,  and  as  many  more  as  tbe  country 
may  call,  if  it  call  for  all  we  h*ve.  And  yet,  with- 
out, constancy,  courage  may  fail  at  ljst.  In  the 
difficult  and  novel  circumstances  iu  which  tbe 
country  now  standi?,  we  are  liable  to  have  repeated 
failure?.  Inexperience  1-ads  to  mistakes;  the  diffi- 
culty of  adjusting  untried  means  to  ends  proposed 
brings  afier  it  frequent  miscarriages,  aud  these  tend 
to  beget  in  the  end  distrust,  and  the  fear  that  we 
may  not  after  all  lie  able  to  overcome  tffe  difficul- 
ties in  our  way.  But  this  is  not  the  proper  leeliDg 
for  a  heroic  people.  Constancy  under  all  forturjes 
is  the  great  Ron  an  virtue,  as  the  opposite  quality 
is  the  curse  of  fickle  and  secondary  nations. 
"  Unstable  as  water,  thou  shalt  not  excel," 
was  the  prophesy  of  tbe  patriarch  to  a 
portion  of  bis  children.  So  it  is  now.  and 
so  it  ever  will  be;  those  nations  only  can  hope  to 
stand  at  the  head  of  the  world  which  never  despair. 
Let  us,  fellow-citizens,  stand  together;  show  the 
courage  of  our  fathers,  and  the  constancy  of  our  race. 
So  will  our  future  be  full  of  premise.  Then  shall 
we  rise  superior  to  any  disaster  und  every  embar- 
rassment; and  our  children  will  thank  God  for  our 
unity,  our  courage,  aud  our  constancy  throughout 
the  perilous  times  of  tte  slaveholders'  rebellion. 

Mr.  F.  was  frequently  interrupted  by  applause 
during  tbe  delivery  of  his  address. 

The  Chairman  next  introduced  Gov.  Nyb  of 
Nevada  Territory,  who  was  greeted  with  thre« 
cheers. 

SPEECH  OF  GOVERNOR  NYE. 
Gov.  Nye  said  it  was  not  with  bim  a  matter  of 
faith;  he  knew  there  was  enough  of  the  spirit  of 
our  Revolutionary  fathers  yet  circulating  in  the 
veins  of  their  sons  to  redeem  the  flag  under  all  cir- 
cumstances from  dishonor  at  home  or  intervention 
from  abroad.  The  Republic  would  live,  no  matter 
what  the  ordeal  through  which  it  was  called  to  pass. 
He  would  address  Copperheads,  if  there  were  any 
present,  for  he  came  not  to  call  iighteous,  bat  sinners 
to  renentence.  "  They  did  not  want  negro  regi- 
•  ments !"  He  would  arm  a  mule  to  kill  Rebels.  He 
would  arm  the  devil  himself  if  he  would  consent  to 
serve,  because  tbat  would  be  meeting  his  equal  face 
to  face.  [Laughter.]  If  the  Copperheads  wanted 
to  avoid  conscription  let  them  stop  discouraging  en- 
listments in  colored  regiments.  Those  people  who 
talked  about  resisting  the  conscription  act  bad  better 
ask  themselves  whetuer  tbey  wanted  the  field  of  war 
transferred  from  Virginia  to  Manhattan  Island.  Got. 
Nye  continued  at  some  length  in  his  characteristic 
strain,  mingling  humor  and  argument. 

SPEECH  OF   GEORGE   WLLLIAM   CURTIS. 

Mr.  Curtis  on  being  introduced  waa received  with 
api  lause.    He  said : 

Mr.  Chairman  and  fellow  citizens,  two  years  ago, 
when  that  flag  came  down,  for  the  first  time  shot  at 
in  dishonor,  and  disgraced  by  fellow-citizens  of 
ours,  and  American  citizens,  there  was  but  one  feel- 
ing that  ran  through  this  land — a  feeling  so  shudder- 
ing and  appalling,  that  it  was  as  when  a  great  ship 
suddenly  comes  into  the  wind, and  every  inch  of  canvas 
flutters,  and  for  a  moment  there  is  doubt  whether 
the  voyage  shall  be  continued  or  whether  the  ship 
6ball  there  go  down.  You  remember,  fellow-citi- 
zens, that  the  answer  was  given  upon  this  place, 
where  we  stand  to-day.  You  remember  that  the 
first;  answer  was  given  by  eloquent  voices,  whom  it 
is  well  for  us  at  this  moment  to  recall,  becauee 
they  were  voices  of  those  who  have  sealed  tbeir 
fidelity  with  their  life's  blood.  Here,  within  the  range 
of  my  voice  at  this  moment,  stood  the  gallant  Mit- 
cbel,  born  in  Kentucky;  and  he,  after  his  cireer,  ie 
silent.  But  you  know  his  story.  Here,  within 
sound  of  my  voice,  stood  the  great- 
hearted Baker.  He,  too,  has  sealed  the  truth  of 
his  words.  Eloquent  in  their  lives,  fellow-citizens, 
they  were   still    more    eloquent   in    their   death; 


A  a  **-~.-m  . 


30 


and  they  are  forever  eloquent,  speaking  to   yon  and 
me,  to  our  children's  children,  forever,  in  onr  hearts 
and  in  onr  history.    That  was  the  response  givt  n 
then.    Two  vears  have  passed.    There  are  no  longer 
but  800  soldiers,  and  !>ut  $5'X)  in  the  Treasury.     Did 
yon  hear  them  speak  ?     Then  bend  your  head,  and 
strain  your  ears  this  moment,  and  you  shall  hear  aim 
the  thunders  of  an  eloquence  that   shakes  the   very 
air,  that  dazzles  the  very   splendor  of  the   midnight 
heavens — the  thunders  of  the   belching  fires  of  Du- 
pont  and  the  brave  men  with  him,  who  now  declare 
that  that   flag  that  was  pulled  down  in   weaknes- 
shall  be  raised  in  power;  and  that  as  when  it   fell  it 
was  the  glittering  shroud  of  every  party  line,  and  of 
all  party  differences  whatsoever,  so  that   now   there 
are,  there  can  henceforth  be,  but  two  parties   in  the 
land — tbey  who  stand  in  open   rebellion,  with  guns 
and  cannon,  against  it,  and  all  other  men  who  are 
resolved,  God  helping,  if  they  cannot  do  the  work, 
then  they  will  fall  doing  it,  and  transfer  it  to  their 
lineage  to  do,  and  their  children's  children,  until  all 
beneath  that  pall  of  party  shall  upbear  the  flag,  and 
the  stars  are  restored  once  more  to  the   heavens 
whence  they  came.     [Applause.]     This,  fellow-citi- 
zens, and  not  less,  is  tne  significance  ot  the  hour.  It 
is  to  answer  for  us  all  whether  we  are  a  nationality  j 
it  is  to  answer  for  us  all  whether  there  is  something 
below  all  our  ties,  whatever  they  may  be.    This  is  a 
contest  which  has  never  changed  its  character;    this 
is  a    contest,  from  the    beginning,  simply  of    the 
ballot-box.      It      is     not      long    since      I      stood 
upon    a    platform    like    this    6ide    by    side    with 
a      man       whose      every      political      theory      I 
doubt    not,    differs    absolutely  and    radically  from 
mine.    The  gentleman  of  whom  I  speak  is  a  name 
known  to  you,  justly  dear  to  you,  peculiarly  honored 
by  every  loyal  man  in  the  land  at  this  moment,  for 
it   is  James  T.   Brady  of   this  city.      [Applause.] 
With  Mr.  Brady,  .bound   upon  the  same  mission,  we 
went  into  the  State  of  Connecticut,  not  as  Con- 
necticut men,  but  as  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
interested  to  know   whether  other  citizens  ot  the 
United    States  living  in  that  State  were  willing  to 
abandon  the  Union,  dishonor  the  flag,  and  consent 
to  common  ruin.   We  stood  there  side  by  side  simply 
to  defend  the  ballot-box.     Whatever  differences  Mr. 
Brady  and  I  had  before — and  I  believe  they  were 
radical    upon    every    question  —  the    moment    the 
assault  was  made  upon  that  be x,  that  instant  Mr. 
Brady  and  every  man   like  him  in   the  land,  and 
every  loyal  man  of  whatever  complexion,   knew 
no  other  party  than  the  party  that  would  restore,  by 
bullets  if  necessary,   by   every  measure   which  the 
Administration,  which"  is  the  representative  of  this 
country,   might  call  for,   the  ballot-box  in  all  its 
puritv,  as  the  sole  and  single  arbiter  of  every  politi- 
cal difference  in  this  land.    That,  fellow-citizens, 
was    the    significance    of    the    meeting    here    two 
years    ago.      1  stand  to  you,    I    trust,  as  a  loyal 
man.     I  believe  only  one  man    in   this  city  has 
made  it  his  boast  that  be  is  not  loyal.     IA  Voice: 
"  Fernando  Wood."]    It  seems  to  me,  tellow-citi- 
zene,  that  he  might  well  have  spared  his  breath;  for 
I  never  knew  that  any  one  suspected  that  gentleman 
of  loyalty ;  or,  if  loyal,  be   had   long  ago   given  it 
the  benefit  of  the  statute  of  limitation.     [Laughter.] 
But  when  he  says  there  is  no  such  sentiment  as  loy- 
ulty  in  this  land,  I  hope  the  occasion  of  the  hour 
may  take  bim    tbrough  the    square    in  which  we 
stand,  that  he  may  see  the  hundreds  and  thousands 
of  men,  whoee  brothers,  sons,  friends,  stand  embat- 
tled from  the  Chesapeake  10  the  Mississippi,  by  sea 
and  by  land,  brave  men,  united  by  one  sentiment, 
and  one  sentiment  only,  and  that  is  an  unshrinking 
and  eternal  loyalty  to  the   Government  wThich  their 
fathers  made,  which  they  have  received,  and  which, 
by  the  grace  of  God,  they  will  transfer  unchanged 
to  their  children.     [Applause.]    Now,  then,  fellow- 
citizens,  understand  this  one  point,  that  the  effort  to 
destroy  the  Nation,  which  is  no  less  than  the  United 
States     of    America,     is     simply    an     effort     to 
undo      the      laws     of     God.       The     Union    of 
the     United     States     is      an     instinct.        From 


the  instinct  of  union  in  the  people  the   Constitution 
of  the  United  States  sprang.     For  it  was  the  senti- 
ment of  union  that   made   the  Constitution,  and  not 
the  Constitution  that  made  the  Union.    The   Union 
is  iin  effect  cf  our  existence;    it  is  a  thought,  it  is  a 
sentiment,  you  cannot  repeal  it,  you  cannot  touch  it 
in  the  least  point,  for  it  is  in  the  heart  of  every  citi- 
zen. And  when  we  say  Union,  and  when  I  stand  here 
and  say  to  yon  that  I  belong  to  the   Union,  and  that 
that  flag  stands  for  tbe  Union,  you  all  understand  me 
to  mean  precisely  what  an  Englishman  means  when 
he  says  England,  precisely  what  a  Frenchman  means 
when   he   iays  France — and  that   is  tbe    essential 
nationality  of  this  people.    The   Union  is  the  form 
only,  the  nation  is  the  soul.    To  save  the  Union  is  to 
save  the  nation.    And,  therefore,  at  this  moment  first 
and  most  truly  in  this  land  the  Union  man  is  be  who 
is  resolved  that  there  is,  that  by  the  grace  of  God 
God  there  shall  be  but  one  Government  as  there  is 
but  one  nation  within  our  domains— that   either  this 
Rebellion  shall  march  trailing  its  flag  over  us,  until 
above  our  shame  and  disgrace  its  flag  sends  its 
curdling  and  chilling  shadow  deep  into  the  waters 
of  the  land,  or  that  the  people  of  the  United  States 
of  America — knowing  that  the  Uuion  is  the  nation — 
will  march  triumphant  over  them,  bearing  that  flag 
full  of  the  hues  of  Heaven,  until  its  ancient  splen- 
dors shall  flash  the  liberty  with  which  it  was  first 
baptized  far  over  the  sparkling  waters  of  the  North. 
[Applause.]    Stand  fast,  theu,  by  the  Union.     Un- 
derstand that  when  the  Continental  Congress  de- 
clared, adjourning,   as  it  did  adjourn,  that  its  best 
men  might  make   the   Constitution  of  the   United 
States,  that  tbe  cause  of  the  United  States  is  the 
cause  of  human    nature.    It  is  therefore  that  this 
Rebellion  is  so  envenomed,  and  therefore  that  this 
Rebellion  stands  so  fast  and  so  ably,   because  it 
knows  that  by  the  necessary  development,  by  the 
necessary  growth   of  the  people  of   this  country, 
whatever    interferes   with    the    rights,     with   the 
liberties,  with  the  peace  of  any  solitary  citizen  in  the 
land,  wherever  he  may  be,  that  touches  the  liberty 
of  all;  and   no   man  will  rest,  the  nation  itself  will 
heave,  until  the  rights  of  every  man  have  been  fully 
vindicated.     Now,  fellow-citizens,  this  being  so,  the 
experience  of  two   years  has  shown  us  two  things: 
in  the  first  place,  that  thi6  nation  is  resolved  to  main- 
tain its  nationality;  and  in  the  second  place,  that 
there  is  no  conceivable  result  possible  to  the  war  in 
which  we  are  engaged  except  the  absolute  victory 
or  the  absolute  subjugation  of  the  Government  of 
the  United  States.   [Applause,  i  There  is  no  possible 
ground  between  this.    The  gentlemen  who  have  for 
a  moment  proposed  compromise  do  injustice  to  the 
policy  and  sagacity  of  the  men  who  have  reared  the 
black  flag  of  rebellion.    The  men  who  bave  raised 
the  flag  of   disunion  do  an    equal   injustice    to  the 
sworu  conviction  of    every    loyal   citizen   in    the 
land.      Therefore,      understand     me,    that     there 
can  be  but  one  of  these  two  issues.    You  know 
which.    In  your  own   experience  it  is  written  in 
many  a  household  of  yours  in  tbe  finger  of  blood — 
it  is  written  in  your  hearts,  deep  down,  with  all  the 
earnestness  of  the  most  vital  conviction.     Under- 
stand that  the  moral  of  to-day  is  the    moral  of 
two  years  ago;  that  there  is  nenceforth  no  party 
among  loyal  men.     We   know   there  is  none.     We 
know  this,  fellow-citizens,  that  old  Jefferson  Davis, 
of  Mississippi,  was  no  sounder  man  tried  by  party 
Btandard  than  tbe  old  white-baired  man  whose  elo- 
quence has  thrilled  you  this  afternoon.     Whatever 
Jefferson  Davis  waa  as  a  party  man  that  was  Dan- 
iel S.  Dickinson.    And  while  the  hand  of  Jeff. 
Davis  was  raised  to  stab   us,   you  know   how  the 
tongue  of  Mr.  Dickinson  has  waved  like  a  tongue  of 
fire,  defending  and  again  defending  as   be  has  to- 
day, the   outraged   honor  of   our  dearest   common 
mother  and    native    land.     [Applause.]     And  you 
know     further,    that      however     good    a    party 
leader  in  his  day  Mr.  Breckinridge  may  have  been, 
that  Mr.  Douglas  was  no  way  inferior,  and  his  last 
words  were  of  tbe  most  unswerving  loyalty  to  his 
country  and  to  tbe  Union  of  the  States.    [Applause.}, 


\ 


31 


And,  fellow- citizen 3,  it  was  my  special  pleasure  to 
say,  when  it  was  my  privilege  to  be  in  Connecticut, 
that  if  they  had  produced  in  Connec  icut  one  known 
in  party  trues  as  a  Democrat,  we  in  New-York  had 
produced  another  man  kuown  in  party  days  as  a 
Democrat :  and  that  if  Laac  Toucey  had  done  all  he 
could,  as  his  own  letters  testify,  to  haul  down  thit 
flag  and  uisgrace  ft  beneath  the  heel  of  Rebellion, 
that  John  A.  Dix — a  man,  and  no  less — had  not 
hesitated  to  make  the  telegraph  and  every  brave 
man's  heart  thrill  with  the  message:  "Whoever 
hauls  down  that  flag,  shoot  him  on  the  spot  !"  [Ap- 
plause.J  Yes,  lellow-citizens,  there  we  stood  then, 
and  here  we  6tana  now,  unchanged.  The  6hip  was 
toeing  then ;  I  grant  you  the  ship  is  tossing  now.  But 
then  it  was  iu  the  wind;  now  it  has  laid  its  course; 
it  has  taken  the  full  breeze,  and  its  course  is  onward. 
But  this  understand,  that  while  the  tempest  howls, 
while  the  ship  quivers  in  its  dreadful  billows  red 
with  blood,  what  is  the  duty  of  every  loyal  man; 
what  will  every  loyal  man  do  ?  He  will  ask  him- 
self but  one  question:  Does  the  captain,  do  the  crew, 
mean  right  'i  Then,  if  they  do,  I  will  not  trouble 
myself  to  have  a  better  captain  I  might  know;  I 
will  not  trouble  myself  to  call  over  the  names  of  a 
crew  that  might  seem  abler  than  this.  The  ship  is 
here;  the  tornado  is  here;  the  captain  is  here;  the 
crew  is  here — we  are  all  in  for  the  voyage.  And 
whoever,  knowing  that  that  captain  and  crew  desire 
only  the  safety  of  the  ship  and  the  passengers,  who- 
ever for  an  instant  raises  a  voice  against  them,  who- 
ever himself  desponds,  desires  or  endeavors  to  seduce 
loyal  and  brave  men  of  the  land  from  their  obedience, 
mark  that  man  well,  for  he  shows  himself  a  lineal 
descendant  of  the  Copperhead  in  Eden,  who  tried 
to  seduce  Eve  from  hsr  obedience.  [Laughter  and 
applause.]  Stand  fast,  fellow-citizens,  then,  I  ab- 
jure you;  stand  fast  by  the  flag  which  is  the  sym- 
bol of  all  that  is  precioas  to  you — of  all  the  liberties 
you  ever  had — of  principles  that  at  this  moment  keep 
this  city  m  perfect  peace;  that  at  this  moment  main- 
tain quiet  throughout  the  broad  region  that  is  not 
touched  by  the  hand  of  .Rebellion.  Stand  fast  by 
the  flag,  knowing  this,  that  if  we  are  not  enough; 
that  if,  in  our  day,  this  tight  cannot  be  fought  out ; 
that  it  was  a  fight  which  was  born  iu  us;  it  waB 
bred  in  our  bones;  it  flows  in  our  blood;  we  are 
tied  np  to  that  issue;  and  when  we  lay  in  the 
graves  those  who  went  from  us  with  bloom  in  their 
cheeks,  with  vigor  in  their  voices,  all  that  can  move 
in  man — remember  that  when  they  went  we  held 
ourselves  in  camp  by  our  firesides  ready  to  follow; 
we  hold  ourselves — every  man  of  us  who  is  loyal 
holds  himself,  at  this  moment,  only  waiting  to  hear 
what  the  Government,  which  is  the  representative 
of  the  whole  people,  demands  of  him,  in  order 
to  say,  "  Ready !  Ready!  I  am  here!"  [Tremen- 
dous" applause.]  Still  more:  If  all  who  have 
gone — God  rest  their  soulc ! — if  all  who  are  ready 
to  go,  voung  men  who  are  strong  men  now,  will  not 
suffice,"  then  shall  the  time  come  when  each  one  of  us 
will  transfer  it  to  his  child,  as  the  most  sacred  duty 
he  can  perform,  that  he  shall  neither  spare  himself 
nor  allow  hi3  children's  children  to  be  spared.  And 
renewing  once  more  our  vows  to  the  dear  old  flag, 
we  will  vow — as  we  do  now  here — God  witnessing 
the  vow,  and  the  shades  of  the  august  dead,  who 
have  hallowed  this  very  spot  with  devotion  to  the 
Union;  and  witnessing  the  heavens,  we  do  here  once 
more  vow  that,  pure  as  its  white,  bright  as  its  red, 
fixed  as  its  stars,  is  our  faith  in  the  national  honor, 
in  the  national  glory  that  that  flag  represents;  and 
though  it  should  cost  us  our  lives,  they  shall  be 
given,  and  the  war  shall  go  on — it  shall  be  chroni- 
cled iQ  American  blood — until  that  flag  floats  on 
every  spot  of  American  soil  as  calmly  in  the  evening 
air  as  it  hangs  before  you  now.  [Great  and  long- 
continued  applause.] 

SPEECH   OF   S.    B.   CHITTENDEN". 
After  music,   S.  B.  Chittenden,  esq.,   was  intro- 
duced, who  said  that  he  had  risen  from  a  sick  bed  to 
attend  toe  meeting.    He  denounced  the  aspersion 


that  the  League  was  a  scheme  of  Federal  office- 
holders for  unworthy  ends  as  false.  The  Rebellion 
must  be  put  down  by  shot  and  ehell — and  it  could 
never  be  done  by  conditional  patriots.  Those  who 
were  not  unconditionally  for  the  war  were  egainst 
it.  There  was  but  one  question  before  the  Ameri- 
can people — victory  or  death !  All  other  questions 
had  been  passed  upon  and  adjourned.  We  mutt 
subdue  Jefferson  Davis  or  he  us.  To  divide  the 
Union  would  be  to  Bbver  the  spinal  column  of  the 
nation,  and  death  would  be  the  inevitable  result. 
He  advocated  the  setting  aside  of  all  party  issues, 
and  concluded  by  adjuring  them  by  the  memories  of 
the  past,  the  greater  and,  :oore  glorious  promises  of 
the  future,  to  swear  that  so  long  as  they  lived  they 
would  be  loyal  to  their  country  aud  to  the  flag  that 
waved  over  "  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of 
the  brave."     [Applause.] 

Music  followed,  and  there  were  lond  cries  for  Fre- 
mont. The  Chairman  stated  Mr.  Fremont  was 
coming.  [A  voice,  "We  don't  want  Mr.  Fremont, 
but  Gen.  Fremont."]  It  was  then  announced  that 
Gen.  Fremont  had  started  to  come  to  the  stand,  but 
was  unable  to  do  so  on  account  of  the  pressure  of  the 
crowd.  At  tbe  same  time  a  dense  mass  of  humanity 
was  seen  surging  and  veering  round  the  Everett 
House,  in  the  midst  of  which  was  the  carriage  of 
Gen.  Fremont,  proceeding  up  Fourth  avenue. 

Mr.  Lambert,  "  the  Irish  apprentice  boy,"  fol- 
lowed in  a  few  remarks,  asking  why  his  country  was 
not  represented  from  the  stand,  as  it  was  nobly  rep- 
resented on  the  battle-field,  and  referred  to  the  repu- 
diation of  Fernando  Wool  and  his  doctrines  by  the 
Mozart  Regiment. 

SPEECH  OF  THE  HON.  JAMES  A.  BRIGGS. 
The  Hon.  James  A.  Briggs  did  not  mince  matters 
in  defining  his  position.  Treason,  be  believed, 
attainted  the  blood,  and  he  was  for  hanging  traitors, 
proven  to  be  such,  whether  South  or  North.  Mr. 
Briggs  drew  a  comparison  between  Connecticut 
Seymour  and  New-York  Wood,  as  they  sat  down  to 
figure  up  the  result  of  the  election  in  the  land  of 
steady  habits,  and  the  two  surviving  enemies  in  a 
famished  city,  described  by  Byron,  when  they 

"  Lifted  np  their  eyes  and  bebeld 
Each  other's  aspects,  taw,  and  shrieked,  and  died; 
Even  of  their  mutual  hideousness  they  died, 
Witnessing  each  the  other  was  one  upon  whose  b:ow 
Patriotism  had  written,  Tiaitor  1"     {  Applause.  ] 

SPEECH  OF    THEODORE  T1LTOX. 

Theodore  Tiltox  was  the  last  speaker.  In  the 
course  of  his  remarks  he  said  that  the  shadows  of 
even  were  descending,  and  a  shadow  had  also  passed 
over  our  flag,  but  it  would  rise  out  of  it  resplendent, 
and  its  glory  in  the  future  should  exceed  any  glory 
of  the  past.  Tbe  lesson  they  were  to  carry  borne 
was  that  there  should  be  no  sinking  of  hope  for  the 
Republic,  but  there  should  be  a  resurrection  for  it; 
for" as  God  lived,  liberty  should  triumph  in  this  land. 
The  Republic  was  not"  dead,  but  the  Slave  Power 
that  struck  the  Republic  wa6  dead.  All  wars  had 
their  compensations;  and,  as  the  bow  of  promise 
came  out  of  the  stormy  sky,  so  liberty  should  rise 
out  of  the  storm  of  this  time,  and  the  East  and  the 
West,  the  North  and  the  South— as  did  the  Isle  of 
Cypress,  according  to  the  mythological  tale,  at  the 
tread  of  Venus — should  blossom  with  the  flowers  of 
peace.  Mr.  Tilton  concluded  by  sayinr;,  "  May  God 
save  the  Republic  in  His  own  time,  and  to  His  own 
praise !  ' 

The  meeting  at  this  stand,  about  6£  o'clock,  closed 
with  three  cheers  for  the  Flag  of  the  Union. 

Thomas  Parsons,  esq.,  of  St.  Louis,  said  that  he 
hailed  from  a  State  claimed  by  Jeff.  Davis.  He  was 
the  first  man  that  hung  out  a  Union  flag  when  that 
city  was  under  Rebel  sway.    He  was  a  Jackson- 


32 


VanBnren-Po  .:  Democrat,  but  not  a  Buchanan 
Democrat  npeihead.     [Applaure.] 

Gen.  r  rt>,  one  of  the  men  who  defended 

Fort  Sourer,  was  introduced,  and  gracefully  ac- 
knn»  •  tged  the  enthusiastic  reception  accorded  to 
\ 

OPTION     OF     THE     DELEGATION      FROM     THE 

•  i  alLkagpe  of  PriLvDELi'HiA. — The  De'egation 
ji  the  Loyal  league  of  Philadelphia,  to  attend 
the  Great  Maes  "Meeting  of  Saturday,  arrived  at  the 
foot  of  Courtlandt  street  about  noon,  where  th^v 
were  met  by  a  Committee  of  the  Loyal  Leagues  of 
this  city, with  carriag*s.  The  distinguished  guests 
were  taken  to  Delmonico's  and  welcomed  by  R.  B. 
Mintnrn  and,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Bellows.  Morton  Mc- 
Michael,  esq.,  Chairman  of  the  Philadelphia  Dele- 
gation responded  in  a  very  happy  and  patriotic 
speech,  after  which  all  partook  of  a  lunch  pro- 
vided for  their  entertainment.  From  Delmoni- 
co's the  guests  were  escorted  to  the  headquar- 
ters of  the  Union  League  Glub,  and  invited  to 
participate  in  the  proceedings  of  raising  and  dedi- 
cating a  flag.  Tbey  were  then  escorted  to  seats  at 
the  various  stands.  At  7  o'clock  the  uelegates  of 
the  New  York  Union  Leagues  dined  by  invitation 
with  the  Philadelphia  Delegates  at  the  Astor  House. 
Covers  were  laid  for  150  persons. 

When  the  cloth  was  removed,  speeches  were  made 
by  B.  H.  Brewster,  esq.,  Charles  Gibbons,  esq., 
Henry  C.  Carey,  esq.,  and  others  of  Philadelphia, 
Senator  Wilson  of  Massachusetts,  Charles  King, 
esq.  of  tbis  city,  and  oihere.  Morton  McMichaei, 
esq.,  presided.  There  were  about  one  hundred 
PLiladelpLians  present,  among  whom  were  George 
H.  Boktr,  esq.,  Judge  Kelley,  John  B.  Kenney,  aod 
ex-Mayor  Ctiarles  Gilpin.  The  affair  passed  off 
pleasantly.  The  Philadelphia  guests,  during  their 
stay,  were  waited  upon  by"  many  of  our  most  prom- 
inent citizens,  aid  expressed  themselves  highly  de- 
listed with  their  reception  and  entertainment. 
They  return  home  to-day,  bearing  with  them  the 
best  wishes  of  their  loyal  friends  in  this  city,  whose 
hearts  beat  in  unison  with  theirs  and  whose  hands 
are  ever  ready  to  join  with  theirs  in  upholding  the 
Union  and  crushing  out  this  wicked  and  causeless 
Rebellion. 


A  NORTHERN  TRIBUTE  TO  SOUTHERN  LOYALTY. 
RESOLUTIONS 

Offered  by  Francis  Lieber,  and  seconded  by  C.  E. 
Dktmold,  concerning  the  demise  of  James  L. 
Petigru,  of  South  Carolina,  and  unanimously 
approved  at  the  Great  Mass  Meeting  of  the 
Loyal  National  League  and  other  loyal  citi- 
zens, on  occasion  of  the  Sumter  Anniversary, 
in  New  York,  April  llth,  1863: 

We,  loyal  citizens,  assembled  in  Union  Square, 
New  York,  on  the  llth  day  of  April,  1863,  have 
heard  with  deep  sorrow  that  James  Louis  Peti- 
gru, of  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  has  departed 
from  this  life  ;  therefore, 

Resolved,  That  we  will  ever  cherish  the  spot- 
less name  of  this  loyal  citizen,  who  has  set  us  a 
bright  example  of  unwavering  fidelity  and  forti- 
tude in  adhering  to  his  country  and  her  6acred 
cause,  with  a  large  mind  untainted  by  narrow 
state  pride,  free  from  sectional  prejudice,  and 
proof  against  the  errors  peculiar  to  bis  native 
portion  of  the  country. 

Resolved,  That,  born  and  educated  in  South 
Carolina;  gifted  with  talents  which  entitled  him 
to  the  higheet  positions  coveted  by  ambition ; 


acknowledged  by  all  to  be  the  greatest  jurist  and 
counsellor  in  his  whole  State  ;  of  a  genial  as  well 
as  an  aspiring  temper,  fitted  to  enjoy  the  ameni- 
ties of  friendship  and  inspiriting  popularity ; 
aware  that  his  interests  were  not  lying  on  the 
side  he  had  chosen;  conscious  that  he  wanted  but 
a  sphere  of  action  to  be  a  statesman, — he  never- 
theless preferred  to  give  up  every  advantage  and 
tie,  and  to  remain,  from  early  manhood  to  a  ripe 
old  age,  a  patriot  of  devoted  rectitude  and  polit- 
ical simplicity. 

Resolved,  That  in  the  unhappy  period  of  nulli- 
fication James  Louis  Petigru  was  the  acknowl- 
edged leader  of  the  Union  men  in  Charleston  \ 
and  now,  in  this  dire  civil  war,  when  his  im- 
passioned State  pronounced  herself  by  an  over- 
whelming declaration  against  the  country,  he 
alone  of  all  prominent  citizens  remained  faithful 
and  unmoved  to  the  last  moment  of  his  life,  as  a 
lonely  rock  in  the  midst  of  an  angry  sea  is  lashed 
in  vain  by  the  frenzied  turmoil  of  storm  and 
wave. 


LETTER    FROM    GEN.    HALLECK,     GENERAL-IN- 
CHIEF    OF    THE    AMERICAN    ARMIES. 

Headquarteks  of  the  Army,  ) 

Washington,  April  5th,  1863.  \ 
James  A.  Roosevelt, 

Secretary  of  the  League,  N.  Y. 

Sir: — I  have  received  your  invitation  to  attend 
a  mass  meeting  of  the  Loyal  National  League  in 
New  York,  on  the  llth  inst.,  and  I  regret  that 
my  official  duties  will  prevent  me  from  being 
present.  I,  however,  fully  approve  of  the  object 
of  the  meeting,  as  set  forth  in  ypur  circular. 

I  think  no  man  who  has  carefully  observed  the 
course  of  events  in  the  rebel  States,  since  the 
commencement  of  this  war,  can  now  hope  for 
any  other  peace  than  that  which  is  imposed  by  the 
bayonet.  The  loyal  States  must  conquer  this 
rebellion,  or  it  will  conquer  them.  Loyal  men  of 
all  parties,  and  of  all  shades  of  political  opinion, 
must  unite  in  supporting  the  government  of  our 
fathers,  or  consent  to  see  the  glory  and  integrity 
of  this  great  nation  utterly  destroyed  by  rebels 
and  traitors.  This  rebellion  cannot  be  put  down 
by  peaceful  measures.  Those  who  pretend  to 
think  eo  are  either  madmen  or  traitors  in  dis- 
guise. We  must  either  conquer  or  submit  to 
terms  dictated  by  the  Southern  oligarchy.  There 
is  no  other  alternative.  The  great  North  and 
West,  with  their  vastly  superior  numbers  and 
means,  can  conquer,  if  they  will  act  together. 
If,  through  factions  and  dissensions,  they  fail  to 
do  this,  they  will  stand  forever  disgraced  in  the 
opinion  of  the  world,  and  will  transmit  that  dis- 
grace to  their  posterity. 

We  have  already  made  immense  progress  in 
this  war — a  greater  progress  than  was  ever  before 
made  under  similar  circumstances.  Our  armies 
are  6till  advancing,  and,  if  sustained  by  the 
voices  of  the  patriotic  millions  at  home,  they  will, 
ere  long,  crush  the  rebellion  in  the  South,  and 
then  place  their  heels  upon  the  heads  of  sneaking 
traitors  in  the  North. 

Very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  serv't, 
H.  W.  HALLECK, 
General-in-Chiel 


>.#  ».» 


I   N  T>  E  X 

II-   BRIEF  REPORT   OF   PRO<  EEDIl 


.,  ,....  -| I.es,   Letters,  I  -'""•,  Dillon.) 


i. , , . 


1" 

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iutinna  expressive  of  the  views  dI  the  meeting 

!,.„„-  from  Gen.  Scott,  Geiw   Hooker,  Rnd  Gov.  Todd 

,„.,,  „,■  Hon.  Montgomery   Blair.  Postmaster-General 

,,  „,   n,,,,   William   I).   Kolley,  of   Philadelphia 

\d.ln--  bv   Dr.  Francis    Lieher 

',.,.  ,„  ;,ohn   Bright,  Richard  Cobdeii,  and  other  friends  in   Great    I  ntain,. 
.,„„  Gasparin  and  other  friends  of  America  in  France,,.. 

S) di  of  <;<>\.  Morton,  of  Indiana 

Rooiarks  of  General   Hamilton,  of  Texa* ■•••    •• 

iark*  nf  Hon.  -lames  M.  Scovel,  of  tiw  Sew  Jersey    Legislature 

Remarks  of  Rev.  .1.  T.  Duryea 

,1,  .,1'  Dr.  Francis  Lieber 

marks  of  Benson  J.  Lossing,  Esq 

ecb  of  Major-Gen.  Sigel 

narks  of  Dr.  Rudolph  Dulon 

.,.,,  of  Hon.  Schuyler  Colfax,  M.  ('..  from  Indiana 

,,.(.h  of  Gov.  Pierpont,  of  Virginia 

aarksd  Mr.  Weill  and  Dr.  Foerseh 

S1  i-ecb  of  Major-Gen.  Fremont 

,.,.,,  ,,,-  Hon.   Roscoe  Conkling •    •••:" 

ltionil,  Odes,  by  Alfred  B.  Street,  and  George  U.  Boker,  Esq* 

Remarks  of  Honi   Mr.  Julian,  of  Indiana 

liarka  of  Mr.   W.  J.   A.  Fuller 

LftU.-r  from   Major-Gen.   Dix, 

1,  of  11"".  l>;l"i<'1  s    Dickinson 

....,.,,  ,,f  Hon.  Heirry  Wilson,  of  Massachusetts 

,,.h  of  Gov.  Nye,  of  Nevada 

„,arks  of  John  C.  Montgomery,   K-<( 

inarks  of  Mr.  G.  W.  Eliot,  of  Loudon 

,„a,.ks  of  Col.  N'ugenS  of  the  69th 

Speecb  of  David  Dudley  Field,  Esq,. 

Speech  of  George  William  Curtis,  Esq 

,.h  0f  s.  B.  Chittenden,  Esq .., 

Remarks  of  Mr.  Lambert, of  [relano '.'.'.'.'.'.'.  81 

perii  of  Hon.  James  A.  Briggs .  .  .  ;;1 

.,.,-h  ,,f  Theodore  Tilton,  Esq :;1 

Remarks  of  Thomas  Parsons,  Esq.,  of  St  Louis 

„  Crawford,. f  the  defenders  of  fort  Sumter ■    gg 

n  l  ..ration  from  the  Loyal  League  of  Philadelphia •  •  ■ '  • 

death  of  James  L.  Petigru,  of  South  Carolina 

,,.,•  from  Major  Gen.  Halleck 


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'••"** 


